Chapter One
Haruhi leant against the kitchen bench and stared at the clock on the wall. Her father was supposed to have finished his shift over an hour ago. There was no reason that she could think of, for him to be this late unless there was a serious problem.
Ever since she was a little girl Haruhi had been aware that there were people in the world who hated her father just because he wore skirts and bothered with make up. As much as she tried not to think about it, thoughts of her daddy being attacked as he left the bar were flitting through her head and adding to her panic.
Another minute ticked by and Haruhi pushed off from the bench to pace a circuit around the apartment. Years ago she had been persuaded to promise him not to walk about the streets alone at night. It was a promise that he had asked her to renew every year. It was one of the few rules that Ranka Fujioka truly enforced and she knew it was because of situations like this.
Haruhi started running through her options. Calling the police would get her nowhere. They were too busy fighting crime to go looking for a missing dad who was barely an hour late and she couldn't go out and look for him alone. As she ran though the list of acquaintances in her apartment complex, Haruhi began to realise just how old most of her neighbours really were.
Her only other option was to call someone in the host club for help. Tamaki would be completely hopeless and Haruhi really didn't have the patience to spare on his dramatics at the moment. The Hitachiin twins would probably be just as pointless, though more sarcastic. That left Kyoya, Hunny or Mori.
As efficient as Kyoya may be, he would be about as comforting as her left shoe; familiar and appreciated, but likely to leave a blister. She was sure Hunny would be wonderfully comforting at this point and very willing to protect her as she roamed the streets searching for her father. The problem was that as safe as she would be with him, he would make her appear more like a target than if she went by herself. The last thing she wanted was to attract trouble.
Haurhi realised that her only real option for help would be Mori, who was not only formidable, but also looked it. Within minutes she had found Mori's phone number and dialled with shaking fingers.
"This is the Morinozuka residence. May I help you?"
"Satoshi-kun? Ano, Its Haruhi. C-could I speak to Mori-sempai please?"
There was a very familiar sounding grunt on the other end of the line. Haruhi chewed her thumbnail and listened to the footsteps as the younger Morinozuka carried the phone through the house.
"Takashi, your girlfriend's on the phone." Satoshi teased.
"Girlfriend?! What girlfriend? Why was I not aware of this girl? When are you going to introduce her to us?" Haruhi wasn't really listening properly but she did assume that the man talking was Mori's father.
"We are not romantically involved, father. She's a friend from a club at school." With that there were more footsteps and then he finally spoke into the phone. "Hello Haruhi-kun."
"M-mori-sempai?"
"Are you alright?" The concern in his voice was obvious and Haruhi cringed at being so easy to read.
"Yes, I just … my father didn't come home and he should have been here an hour ago and I have a bad feeling but I promised that I wouldn't go out by myself after dark and I'm getting really worried. I didn't know who else to call and – "
"Was he at work before he went missing?"
"Yes."
"What's the address? I'll drive by there on the way to your place."
"Th-thank you Mori-sempai." Haruhi gave him the address and without any more fuss then that he was on his way over.
There was something so soothing about his voice. The moment she heard it, her nerves calmed. Not enough to stop her worrying but at least she wasn't shaking any more. She put the kettle on and convinced herself that in five minutes time Mori and her father would walk through the door and they would all sit around and drink tea while they laughed at her unneeded panic.
As Takashi hit the 'end' button on the phone he looked up at Keiko, the maid, in the corner of the room. She was pretending to dust even as she watched him and edged toward the door, anticipating his request. He sent her off to have a car brought around as he moved to make his excuses to his father.
"My friend has a small emergency. I need to go out. Please excuse me."
"No."
"No?"
"If this girl is important enough that you will run off to help her so easily then I believe I should meet her. I will come with you."
Takashi tried not to gape. His father had never met any of his friends, let alone gone out of his way to do so. Takashi seriously doubted that the man was aware of him associating with anyone other than Mitsukuni and the occasional exceptional sparring partner.
A few minutes later Takshi handed the driver the address that he had written down and folded himself into the back of the limo with his father.
"You should know that Haruhi-kun is a commoner who is attending Ouran by a scholarship. Her father works in an okama bar and has not returned home. I am going to help her find him. You should also know that Haruhi-kun is a female who presents herself as a male at school for the purpose of working in the Host Club. She has her reasons"
"So they are both okama?"
"In a way, yes."
Takashi watched as his father absorbed the information with a simple nod.
Eventually the head of the Morinozuka family calmly turned to his son and pointed to the bar out the window. It was Fujioka Ranka's workplace. Mori instructed the driver to continue on to Haruhi's address at a slower pace.
After a few more minutes of silence Morinozuka could no longer hold his questions in. Takashi had been waiting for it, but he had been hoping to postpone it until after he had helped Haruhi.
"Who is this okama girl to you?"
"A friend. Her name is Haruhi."
"Is that all? Just a friend?"
"Yes. Father, what does that look like to you?"
"A drunken woman lying on the sidewalk. If she is just a friend then why did Satoshi call her your girlfriend?"
Takashi shook his head. That wasn't just a drunk woman. That was a red-haired woman.
"Stop the car."
Haruhi watched the kettle boil for the fourth time. After a full minute of listening to it scream, she took it off the stove, poured out the boiling water and refilled the kettle with cold water to repeat the process.
"Why does waiting have to be this hard?" she muttered to herself.
A few more minutes and another squeal of the kettle had Haruhi ready to rip the door off its hinges and search the streets personally. Promise be damned. She snatched up her jacket and moved toward the door when a figure through the window caught her attention.
There was a tall person sprinting down the street. He turned into the front of her apartment complex. Something about him seemed familiar and a moment later, when his face was illuminated by the glow of window, she realised why. Mori was running to her apartment.
Haruhi threw the door open in a hurry, stepped out on the landing and watched his head appear as he scaled the stairs. His speed was unnerving. Was he being pursued or was it just really urgent? Either way it didn't do anything to settle her shaking limbs.
"Haruhi-kun." he said as he came to a stop in front of her.
"Are you alright? Why were you running?"
"I wanted to make sure you had time to get your things before the taxi arrived. You'll need keys, identification and a jacket."
"W-why? What's happened?"
"Your father is on his way to the hospital. I'm not sure what happened to him. We found him passed out on the sidewalk. The taxi should be here any minute."
Haruhi stood frozen to the spot. Passed out on the sidewalk. Anything could have happened to him. Her father, the only person she had left, could have died while she was sitting around boiling water.
"Haruhi-kun?"
When the initial shock wore off Haruhi realised she was standing in the kitchen while Mori tried to thread her left arm into her jacket. She allowed her arms to go where he put them but she didn't think to dress herself instead of making him do it for her.
The next thing she knew she was sitting in a taxi beside the silent giant as they drove to the hospital.
"M-mori-sempai?"
"Nn?"
"Thank you."
He nodded. It was a simple enough action, one that she'd seen him do countless times before, but the understanding and acceptance that it conveyed floored her. That nod opened the flood gates.
With her tears came a strong arm wrapped around her shoulders and a box of tissues that seemed to have appeared from thin air. Haruhi would later realise that he had swiped the box off her kitchen counter as he led had her out of the apartment.
Author's Note:
This is my first attempt at fanfiction of an Anime/Manga. It is un-betaed and my knowledge is confined to the anime version of Ouran and a few other things that I picked up from reading other's fanfics. Please let me know if you spot a mistake.
Reviews make me happy. And if I'm happy the next chapter will be up all the quicker.
