"Sierra
I'll never know who you are and I don't deserve to
My little girl, we could have been so- oh, nevermind…"
-Sierra by Cursive

It had been accidental.

Kyouya had never meant to run into Haruhi at the park that afternoon, and it had changed everything, absolutely everything.

He'd just been taking a walk, to clear his mind. In a few months, he would be graduating from graduate school, and would be ready to immediately begin working in his father's company. He was at the top of everything (the top of his class, president of his fraternity for the third year in a row, president of student activities; the list went on and on), everything in his life was set on a good- no, excellent- track, filled with everything his father expected of him, and more.

And seeing Haruhi nearly ruined it all.

He'd seen her out of the corner of his eye- at least, he'd been sure he had. The same build (though, her chest seemed to have filled out quite a bit), the same hair style and hair color from when he'd last seen her, five years ago (or was it six?). Kyouya did a double-take, and yes, he was right. It was definitely Haruhi, talking to another woman her age.

"Haruhi?" He hadn't been able to help himself. Haruhi would almost certainly be unhappy to see her; they hadn't parted well. Well? Hell, they had parted in possibly the worst way possible, but that had been unavoidable, due to the circumstances. But, it had been so long since he'd last seen her, and he had to admit, he was curious as to how she was doing.

She turned, saw him, and her eyes widened with shock. Kyouya adjusted his glasses, waiting for her to say something.

"Kyouya?" Her tone was puzzled. This was much better than Kyouya had expected; at least it wasn't angry.

He nodded. "How've you been?" The question was formal. It had been too long since they last spoke to just causally spring up a conversation.

Haruhi seemed to struggle with how to respond to him, before turning to her friend and asking if she minded giving them a moment. The friend obliged, waved goodbye, and walked toward a nearby playground.

It was then that Haruhi eyed him suspiciously. "Why are you here?" Her tone was slightly more aggressive than before.

"It's a nice day; I'm taking a walk," Kyouya said simply. "Why are you here?"

Haruhi glanced back at the playground, and then quickly back at him. "I figured that would be obvious."

And then Kyouya felt foolish. He was always the one to catch on to things rather quickly, and Haruhi was right; now that he thought about it, it was obvious. But, the last time he'd seen her, her stomach had barely even started to show. It was hard to think, to imagine that their child could be old enough to play on a playground.

Her pregnancy had been the reason for their break-up.

They had been dating for four years; Haruhi had been a junior in college, and he had been a senior. Both had panicked when she had missed her period (though, very inwardly, especially on Kyouya's part), and even more so when it was confirmed that she was indeed pregnant.

Kyouya had wanted her to get an abortion; he was not ready to marry, and having a child before marriage was not something his father would be particularly happy with. Haruhi had been adamantly against an abortion, and couldn't see the problem with them just raising a child together, even if they weren't married.

They had constantly fought over this. Kyouya hadn't wanted to lose Haruhi as a girlfriend, but he couldn't risk his entire future just because they'd forgotten to use a condom once.

In the end, Haruhi had moved out of their apartment (immediately after a particularly nasty argument), disgusted with him. He had tried to pay for another place for her to stay, but she refused, saying she wanted nothing from him. Kyouya knew that being a single mother would be hard; he sent her monthly checks, despite the fact that they never spoke.

After two years, he received a letter back, containing three of his checks. He took it as a sign to stop sending them.

He never contacted her, and she never contacted him, and life had moved on.

"Oh," Kyouya said, following her gaze to the playground. There were dozens of kids running around; most seemed to be within the right age to be his. Which one was it? Hell, he didn't even know whether Haruhi had given birth to a boy or girl.

"You can't have her."

Her words startled him. She thought he was going to try to take back his- their daughter. Kyouya looked back at Haruhi; she was staring at him coldly.

"I will fight tooth and nail for her," Haruhi continued. "I don't care what it costs, how long it might take, I will not let you have her. You lost your cha-"

"I'm not trying to take…her," Kyouya said. He had a daughter. "I was just taking a walk, and happened to see you."

She eyed him suspiciously.

"I swear I have absolutely no intentions of taking her from you."

After a moment, Haruhi nodded. "Good."

There was an awkward silence.

"You sent my checks back," Kyouya said, to break the silence.

"Huh? Oh, right. I didn't need them anymore," Haruhi said, a cold edge to her voice. "You didn't want to be a part of her life, and if I kept taking your money, you would continue to be."

"I see." Curiosity got the better of him. "What's her name?"

"Sierra."

Kyouya wasn't at all surprised by the name. Haruhi had told him once that she liked western names.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

A small girl was running towards them, and Kyouya stared in shock. This…this had to be her, had to be Sierra. There were photos, in the house he grew up in, of himself and his siblings, from a young age to their senior photos. And this girl, looked just like his sister did when she was about five, exactly like her, except for the glasses she wore.

Kyouya felt as though he'd been hit by a semi. It was just so incredibly startling to see his daughter for the first time.

Haruhi had crouched down, to be at eye level with the girl. "What is it?"

"I fell! I got a boo-boo!" The girl didn't seem to be the least bit upset over this; in fact, she seemed to be almost proud of it.

"Let me see," Haruhi said.

The girl, Sierra, raised her arm up, showing the underside of it. There it was; a long cut that was bleeding.

"Daddy has the band-aids. He'll fix you up, okay?"

Daddy. Who was 'Daddy'? Kyouya looked to Haruhi's left hand; she wore no ring. She wasn't married.

Sierra had nodded, and took off, running back to the playground. Kyouya watched her, wanting to see who this Daddy person was, but unfortunately, the playground equipment blocked his view.

"She's beautiful," he said quietly. His daughter. He couldn't bring himself to ask who her 'Daddy' was.

"She is," Haruhi said nodding. "And she's happy, not knowing about you." She looked at him. "Don't ruin that."

Kyouya was a little shocked at how casually she said that, but of course chose not to show it. "What do you mean?" From his tone, one would think that he was asking about the weather.

"She doesn't know about you, and I don't plan to let her," Haruhi said calmly, looking back out to the playground. "It would disrupt everything I've worked so hard to create for her; a family, a sense of security." Her gaze returned to him. "I'm going to go now. I don't want to see you again, not near her."

Kyouya adjusted his glasses. "I see. I hope you've been doing well." He nodded to her, and continued on his walk, his demeanor as calm and cool as ever.

But inside, he was beginning to crack.

"And I wonder
Who's the father…."

I hope you enjoyed this. There should be another chapter coming along at some point.

Please leave constructive criticisms.