They would be the end of her.

Of that, she was completely certain. Ever since she had wandered into Music Room 3 that day and seen what she should not have seen, she'd known her fate had been decided.

It wasn't as if she were stupid after all; she did want to become a lawyer. Did Kyouya really think she hadn't seen the fine print?

Upon the termination of this agreement, Haruhi Fujioka will join the Family of the host of her choice.

Of course, that's not to say she'd really known what that meant at the time. By 'join the Family', she'd assumed she'd be adopted by or be forced to marry one of them so that she wouldn't tell the secret. It didn't seem like too bad of a fate, not when it seemed like 'mysteriously disappearing' was the only other option. So she'd signed.

But as the months went by, Haruhi realized family and Family were two different things entirely. The twins were actually the ones who told her, though they hadn't realized exactly what they were telling her at the time.

"No, no, when we say family in the human sense, we mean our mother and our father, and our grandmother and grandfather. You know, blood relations, just like humans mean it." Hikaru said after he'd shown her a picture of his cousin. She'd remarked that they didn't look a thing alike and he'd replied "Of course not, we aren't related. "

"But when we say Family," Kaoru picked back up and Haruhi could hear the emphasis, "we mean all of the vampires in our line. Like, say Grandfather changed three humans in his life. Those three, plus any and all children they had, plus all the children those children had and so on, they're all Family, because someone within the Family changed them."

After that, she had it all figured out; she'd basically signed away her life. She can acknowledge it calmly and does not bother to get upset.

That's not saying she's not scared though.

It's not an overwhelming fear, not by any means. She knows all of the boys care for her and won't do any needless harm; they've proven that much at least. But she thinks she has the right to be scared, just this once, because they will not be just drinking her blood, they'll be replacing it with a piece of them and she will die.

She will die.

So she tries to enjoy life to the fullest now, to experience as many things as possible. Everything from Honey-sempai's cake–it's still too sweet—to the twins' tangling embraces—they are too clingy and she can't tell where she ends and they begin—is taken in and, if not enjoyed, then at least tolerated with a subtle sort of fondness.

And, at the end of the day on Mondays and Fridays, when the Parasite-of-the-Day (or, in the twins' case, Parasites) steps forward and sinks his teeth in, she doesn't complain.

After all, each pint counts and she sees Kyouya off to the side as he subtracts another day's gain from her debt. Sometimes he glances up and catches her eyes as she watches him. But then, his glasses flash and a smirk curves on his lips.

Afterwards, when she feels faint and can't quite stand, the hosts gather around to entertain her and they are always too loud, too bright, and too noisy. Whoever said it's the thought that counts had obviously never been subjected to such a debacle.

They will be the end of her.

I plan on doing a couple more oneshots, but who knows how it will turn out. Consider this completed and then you will be happy if another one shows up!

-katie