-1A/N: I think they might be slightly out-of-character in this one. Hmm. I guess everyone acts differently when stressed. XD Excuses aside, this was a quick one I penned up for my younger sister who has all her exams this week. Mine were the last two, as well, so I guess it's relevant at the moment. Yeah. Anyway, please enjoy! (And, obviously, I don't own Ouran or the song. I think it might be slightly given away as to what it is by the title. XD But yes, by the legendary Queen.)

Under Pressure

Hikaru was awake. He couldn't sleep. The hours dragged, but that was okay. He didn't want the next day to come because he knew what would come with it. So he lay awake instead, and, speakers in his ears, listened to some music as the minutes ticked by.

"Pressure pushing down on me, pressing down on you, no man ask for, Under pressure, that burns a building down, Splits a family in two, puts people on streets…"

Hikaru knew how that felt, but perhaps if he had known how right the words would prove to be he would turn the song off. Instead, he turned it up, trying to drown out his own thoughts.
"It's the terror of knowing what this world is about, Watching some good friends screaming... let me out! Pray tomorrow, takes me higher, Pressure on people, People on streets…"

He snorted. Tomorrow was not likely to take him higher. The pressure was there, though. And, probably, the friends screaming too. Great.
"Chipping around, kick my brains round the floor, These are the days, It never rains but it pours, People on streets, People on streets…"

It certainly felt like someone had kicked his brain. It was his own fault. But what did he care? What did it matter?
"It's the terror of knowing, what this world is about…"
Oh, yeah, that was it. He turned the volume up further, until the headphones began to crackle. In the bed across the room, Kaoru began to stir. He seemed very far away.

Hikaru let the song play out.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Haruhi allowed herself the luxury of a small smile, and that was all the pride she allowed herself. After all, arrogance was not something she wanted to be associated with. Thankfully, her friends would be proud enough for all of them, and Kaoru promptly leaned across the aisle to look at the paper in her hand.

Their exams were in two weeks time, and the results for the practises had just been given out. They may not have counted for anything, but they were important enough, indicating how well you were likely to do at this late stage. Kaoru looked down at Haruhi's string of As and smiled.

"Aha, well done! Didn't doubt you for a second."

"Well," She replied. "I have to do well, or I'll get thrown out. I'm going to have to work hard to do it again for the real thing!"

"Sure." Kaoru didn't believe her. "You know, all those As… Plenty of room for improvement, then."

She smiled slightly, and pointed to the bottom of the sheet. "Yeah, but I got a D here, look."

Kaoru, blinking, looked closer. "Doesn't that stand for distinction…?"

Haruhi looked again too. "Oh, yeah." She said, sheepishly, remembering that particular subject was with a different examination board. She hastily moved on. "Well, how did you do?"

"Alright, I guess…" He answered with cautious optimism, and showed her the sheet. It was a mixed bag, mainly Bs, a single C, a Merit and one A. Haruhi smiled at him, assuring him they were good, and looked at the percentage score. Most of those Bs weren't far off an A. With a little more work in the next fortnight, provided the questions were okay, he would probably have no problem doing just as well as Haruhi.

"Well done- just do it again next time and you're set!"

"It's not as good as yours." Kaoru pointed out, eyebrow raised.

"You worked hard for these." Haruhi replied, and then turned to her other side. Hikaru was watching them silently. "How'd you do, Hikaru?"

"Fine."

"What'd you get?" Kaoru asked over Haruhi's head.

"Does it matter?" Hikaru snapped back.

"I was only asking."

"Well, don't. It's not like they count for anything." To prove the point, he screwed the paper up into a ball. Before they could answer, the final bell rang and they were dismissed for the day. He headed out the door, and Kaoru stood to follow. Haruhi, with no qualms about nosiness, picked up the paper Hikaru had left behind. Kaoru watched her face carefully.

"Is it that bad?"

"No…" Haruhi said, slowly. "I mean, if he…" She sighed. "Okay, it's pretty bad." She handed him a sheet full of Ds and Es. Kaoru sighed.

"Great. I hoped he'd stopped this. I knew he hadn't…"

"Eh?" Haruhi was taken aback at the tone in Kaoru's voice, unlike his usual loyalty, concern and support.

"He used to do this all the time in middle school." Kaoru shrugged. "He doesn't study for tests and then gets angry when he does badly."

Haruhi shook her head. Why had she expected anything more? They caught Hikaru up in the corridor, but said nothing. Kaoru seemed to have resigned himself to the fact that berating his brother would be futile, and Haruhi followed his lead. It wouldn't even be worth the effort.

Tamaki had other ideas.

He almost got away with it. There wasn't time before the club to interrogate each other, and had he acted normally, he might have gotten away with it. Instead, his black mood poisoned the air and, for once, many of the twin's designators seemed glad to get away.

"Hikaru, what's the matter?" Tamaki asked, genuinely concerned.

"Nothing."

"But-"

"I said it's nothing!"

The room fell into silence. Haruhi rolled her eyes, and sick of these juvenile antics, said it plainly:

"He bombed our mock exams."

"Ah, that's okay!" Honey said, optimistically. "That's what practises are for! You can get it next time, right, Hika-chan?"

He snorted. "Why? What's the point? Haruhi is the only one here who needs good grades. We'd all still inherit the companies if we were illiterate."

Tamaki made a strangled noise, and sensing the approach of a rant, Kyouya decided to get his point in first. "I see." He said, flatly, deciding not to make a point of his own uncertain future, but injecting a little extra venom. "Well, Hikaru, whatever your personal feelings, keep them out of this room. You'll lose our customers."

"So what?" He suddenly demanded. "They wouldn't give one if we weren't hosts, would they?! They didn't before!"

"Hikaru…" Kaoru attempting to calm his brother a little, but Hikaru ignored him, and slumped back in the chair. He didn't seem to have any more to say.

Meanwhile, Tamaki had gotten hold of his score sheet. It was unbelievable.

"Hikaru, these grades… You normally do at least a little better then this! What happened?!"

"I failed them all, that's what happened! I know you guys all got As and Bs, but you know, I guess this just makes me the stupid one, okay?!"

"Perhaps they wouldn't be so bad if you'd studied, Hikaru." Kyouya answered, mildly. His words and calm demeanour seemed to enrage Hikaru more, but he said little, as his hands balled tightly.

"Kyouya, you…"

The others had witnessed his grades by now, of course. Honey looked at him mournfully.

"Hika-chan, why didn't you just study?"

"Because I don't care!"

"For someone who doesn't care," Kyouya observed. "You're getting awfully angry."

"The real exams are only two weeks away!" Tamaki fretted. "You must work harder from now on, Hikaru- you might just pass them!"

"Then someone tell me what the point is!"

"To do well!" Tamaki answered, trying to impress upon him the importance of work. "To learn things, so we can do a good job when we leave school! We cannot have such a callous attitude to work in this club! We are constantly in the lime-light, we must create a good impression so as to not abuse our influence over others! The ladies may admire us, but we shouldn't forget we guide the other men not so blessed as ourselves! We cannot behave as if we expect to get by on looks alone!"

Haruhi silently thought this seemed rather contradictory to Tamaki's behaviour so far, but also decided to keep silent.

"Why not?"

"Hikaru! You are being deliberately provocative! It's that attitude that has lead to these!" Tamaki waved the sheet. Hikaru grabbed it angrily, and tore it into pieces.

"You know what, Tono?! It's nothing to do with you!"

"If you won't do it yourself," Tamaki said, voice suddenly calm. "We'll make you. For your own good, Hikaru- you are banned from the Host Club until you get passing grades!"

"Fine." Hikaru spat, picked up his bag, and left. Haruhi went to say something, then stopped. Tamaki was right, it was for his own good if he was going to have time to study properly. But she couldn't help but think that he wouldn't study anyway now he'd decided not to. Hikaru was the sort of material that put up more resistance the harder you pushed. If he'd adopted such a uncaring attitude towards his work, that was the attitude he'd keep until he was bored of it.

She wondered, as Kaoru ran out after his brother, if that would be the last time Hikaru would cross the threshold of the room.

She hoped not.

- - - - - - - - -

Another night.

The same song.

"Turned away from it all, Like a blind man, Sat on a fence, but it don't work, Keep coming up with love, But it's so slashed and torn, Why, why, why? Love, love, love, love…"

It was still right. Fence-sitting hadn't worked. He was angry, so angry he couldn't sleep; despite going straight after dinner. The truth was, he hadn't wanted to speak to anyone. He was angry with them all. So angry it hurt.

Still, there was some part of him that wanted to laugh. Or cry. There didn't seem to be much of a difference at the moment.
"Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking, Can't we give ourselves one more chance? Why can't we give love that one more chance? Why can't we give love, give love, give love? Give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?"

He thought this was supposed to be a song about pressure? He certainly felt under pressure at the moment. And with all his friends on his back about his results, he certainly didn't feel loved.

Did it really matter that much what grades he got?

No, of course it didn't. That was why he was getting so angry earlier, wasn't it?

Kyouya's words came back for an encore.

"For someone who doesn't care, You're getting awfully angry."

Hikaru turned up the volume again.

- - - - - - - - -

The next day, Kaoru and Haruhi came to the club without Hikaru. He seemed rather flustered. Tamaki was edgy, wondering if he'd done the right thing. He wasn't helped by the dark, dank look Kaoru gave him.

"Is… Hikaru okay?" Tamaki wavered.

Kaoru gave him a look of unprecedented evil and went and slumped down, leaving Haruhi to explain that Hikaru hadn't come to school today.

Tamaki looked rather deflated. "But… he'll do even worse if he doesn't come to school…"

"He doesn't want to do well." Kyouya said, matter-of-factly. "And it seems he intends to prove it."

"He didn't talk to me last night." Kaoru said quietly, bitterly. "He ate in silence and then went to bed. He didn't even get up this morning."

The room fell into silence, apart from Kaoru's frequent sighing, and Tamaki's occasional efforts at bringing some enthusiasm into the room. The club would not go well that day, when the air was so oppressive and heavy.

And all because, Haruhi thought, one stubborn child won't do his homework.

It was ridiculous. Tamaki was fretting, Kyouya's evilness had increased, Honey was eating cake even more quickly then usual, Mori wasn't stopping him, and Kaoru was silently stewing.

And it seemed so empty.

Ridiculous.

Haruhi stood, picked up her things, and walked over to Kaoru.

"How do I get to your place from here?"

"Eh? But…"

"Haruhi, what are you planning?" Tamaki asked, nervously.

"I'm going to make him study."

"Wai! Haru-chan's brave!" Honey declared. Kaoru, however, had reservations.

"You won't be able to make him care."

"He doesn't have to." Haruhi answered, calmly. "I just want him to come back."

She went, leaving their doubts behind her. She rang the bell, and they recognised her name, and before too long, she was left outside Hikaru's door. Here, at last, her determination wavered for a moment- she was in no mood for his stubbornness. She had thought the practise would have been for her to have been 'introduced' into the room, and the fact she'd been pretty much abandoned didn't fill her with hope. Then she reasoned that she'd never find her way back through this cavernous house on her own. So. She knocked.

No answer.

She sighed noisily. She had expected this. The only person he would probably tolerate right now was Kaoru, and he wouldn't knock. So she pulled the handle and walked in to what seemed more like a living room, but she figured the door leading off would hold where they slept. Hikaru was in the process of turning on a games console. He didn't even bother to look up to see who had come in.

How rude.

Haruhi walked in fully, and when he still didn't even turn around, located the remote and calmly turned the television off. By the time he'd whipped angrily around and realised who it was, she had already sat down with her arms folded, clearly not intending to go anywhere.

"Haruhi? What are you doing here?" His face suddenly drew in defensively. "If you're here to lecture me about skipping-"

"I'm here to study."

That threw him.

"What?"

"To study. With you. So you can pass."

"I told you already, I don't care."

"Maybe you don't, about the exams." Haruhi looked him straight in the eyes. "But I was under the impression you cared about the Host Club."

Something stirred in Hikaru's eyes then. Some hidden hurt, perhaps. Perhaps his pride had been injured under the ban. He looked away, sighed, and asked again.

"Haruhi, what are you doing here…?" When she merely looked at him defiantly, and then began to take her books out, he sighed and changed tack. Evidentially he'd be doing this whether he cared or not.

"This won't work."

"How so?"

"I'll still fail."

"No, you won't."

"I will."

"You won't."

"But, I will."

She suddenly slammed down a text book. "You can't! If you don't pass, you're basically out of the club!"

Hikaru was slightly taken aback, and answered the only way he could- sarcasm, tinged with curiosity. "And that matters to you?"

Her answer came in an angry mumble. Something about how it did, even if he didn't care, and if she had chased after Tamaki in a carriage and fallen off a bridge she could certainly study.

He couldn't help it. He smiled.

The smile was a white flag. A surrender.

"Alright." He said, sighing theatrically, and to her great surprise, dived under the sofa.

She looked at his legs sticking out, but said nothing. The rest of him reappeared a moment later, dragging a stack of school books. There were some left behind, but, one by one, they were brought out too.

Haruhi attempted to straighten a bent corner. "I see you take such good care of these." She said, dryly.

"There's so many…" Hikaru moaned. "I'll never learn all of this, you know."

He looked so forlorn she almost smiled. Within a second, she had her business face back on. Hikaru's books were hardly in pristine condition. While, to her surprise, his note-taking had been thorough, they were dropped haphazardly onto the page. She couldn't blame him for not knowing where to start.

"We'll need paper." She decided. "Lots of paper."

Hikaru blinked. "What are we doing?"

"Rewriting your notes."

"All of them?" He blanched.

"No." She assured him. "Just what we need."

"Then that is all of it."

She sighed a little in impatience. "Believe me, we're going to need to start small."

"By re-writing it all?! We'll be here a month!" To prove his point, Hikaru pushed on a stack of books. They toppled to the floor. Haruhi watched them fall, sheets tipping out of them. They made a very satisfying avalanche sound. "You'd need a St Bernard to get any information out of that lot." Hikaru added, privately pleased with his little analogy. He should tell Kaoru later.

Oh, wait, he couldn't talk to Kaoru right now. Right.

Instead, he folded his arms and sat back. Point made.

Haruhi placed her sheet of exam grades down on the table between them.

Point also made.

They began. Haruhi was surprised that once Hikaru got down to it, he worked well; at least in terms of concentration. As they went through, vetting what he'd need to know and what he wouldn't, she made sure to explain things or to ask him questions. He didn't do well. But he was so clearly trying.

They'd gotten through three subjects, and, when the last history book was closed, Hikaru collapsed onto the floor with relief. From three and a half books of notes, they had gotten down to six sides of A4, and yet, they had everything essential down. So Haruhi told him.

He didn't know if he believed her yet.

She was watching him now, somewhere between amusement and exasperation. "There's a lot more work to do, you know."

He groaned.

"Don't worry. I'll help."

That prospect filled him with more happiness then it really warranted, so he sat up and looked at her suspiciously. "Promise?"

She rolled her eyes. Close enough.

She began to put her things away, but didn't leave yet. No. She had got a feeling, as they had been studying, about something. Some of the things Hikaru had said over the last few days, and while they had been reading. She was almost sure.

"You studied for the mocks." She stated, flatly. It wasn't a question. He looked up so sharply, she knew she was right. "And, before I came in… but why hide them under the sofa?"

He looked away, embarrassed, and she suddenly knew.

He had known. He had known, even before the mocks, that he didn't understand things. He'd been too embarrassed to study with Kaoru. Too embarrassed that he'd done his best and come out with the grades he had.

Poor Hikaru.

"You tried your best."

"Yeah…" He muttered. "And I failed miserably."

"No, you didn't."

There it was again. Her perfect ability to make him feel curious, and make him feel that little bit better. "How'd you work that one out?"

"Well, it's like… money." Haruhi was desperately searching for something he'd understand. "Would you say 100000 yen is a lot of money?"

"No." He snorted.

"Why not?"

"Well, it wouldn't get you a car, or a house, or-"

She cut him off there. "See? To you, it doesn't seem like much because it can't buy big things. But it would get you a new… oven or something. And for a commoner like me, it is a lot of money because it's something I wouldn't be able to afford normally."

The eyebrow was hitched a little higher. "So you're saying it was good for me to get a D, because if I hadn't studied, I would have got even less?"

She nodded. He laughed.

Another good analogy, if he had been talking to Kaoru.

"Even so, 100000 yen isn't going to get that house, Haruhi."

"It's a start." She dismissed.

"Great. I need a house and all I have is the front door."

She nodded, quite seriously. "We have two weeks to get some walls and a ceiling on it."

"So I don't get furniture?"

"Only if you get As."

"Great. I'll be sleeping on the floor."

She shrugged, and stood, adding one more thing as she headed towards the door, today's study session over. "And start talking to Kaoru. He thinks you're mad at him."

"And I'm not?"

"No." Haruhi answered, matter-of-factly, looking back over her shoulder. "You just feel ashamed that you didn't do as well as him and guilty that you didn't congratulate him for his good results. You think you should have been less selfish, and you're so cut up you can't stand to be near him. Right?"

"…What makes you think that?" Hikaru asked, reluctantly.

"My gut feeling."

There it was again. Every time someone told him their gut feeling, their life seemed to change. That maid had been sure no-one would be able to tell them apart, and then they had believed it to. It had been Tamaki's gut feeling that had told them apart, and they had realised the maid was wrong. And now, now Haruhi's gut feeling had found his every motive. Who knew what would change now?

Actually, he had a pretty good idea. But he left it buried deep in dark soil. It would be quietly nourished until it would quietly grow and blossom.

"Haruhi?"

She was half way away. But she stopped anyway. "Yes?"

"Stop for dinner?"

She did. The sun was setting behind them, flowing, liquid orange light tumbling through large French windows in the dining room. More orange, shining on the red haired twins. An apology had been inferred. Forgiveness had been given freely, with the bonus of relief. Kaoru relayed them with tales of the dramatics that had ensued at the host club without the two of them being present, and soon they all laughed and ate together.

The food was divine. The company was better. The circumstances brought out the optimism in them all. Maybe they could do this.

Kaoru could have volunteered to skip the Host Club too, and join the study sessions. He didn't, and he never saw the two of them until dinner. Every day, the two disappeared into one of the house's many rooms, and studied hard. When asked how it was going, they would simply say 'alright'.

Haruhi, Hikaru had to admit, was nothing short of a miracle worker. A task that had seemed an impossible, insurmountable obstacle before, on his own, seemed a mere step up now. If only he could concentrate as much on the work as on her. By the end of the week, he knew every crease in her face when she focused on reading, all her habits of clenching her hand in a certain way or rubbing her face.

He knew a lot for his exams, too.

Nights were getting better. On his own, in the dark, things had a tendency to creep up on him and almost manage to bury him again. But then he'd remember her promise. He might still be drowning, but he had a snorkel now. If he had to go under, he could still just about breathe.

He lay and listened to his music just as he had before. Now, the new dawn didn't seem quite as dark.

- - - - - - - - -

Three weeks.

Nine pencils- seven of which had been snapped through nerves.

Four pens- he kept losing them. Hence the pencils.

One pencil sharpener, broken.

Two occasions where his death seemed fairly imminent.

Another seven when he wasted valuable time becoming convinced that he was already dead.

A constant headache.

And an end to the study sessions with Haruhi.

He had sustained high losses indeed.

But they were over now.

"Don't worry." That was the advice everyone gave him. "You did your best. There's no point in worrying now."

Haruhi came to dinner one last time. A 'posh' dinner- or, as she put it, extravagant, as they had been posh to begin with- to say thank you. She stayed late. The three of them walked in the gardens on the edge of night, and the sky began to show stars. Then they gave her a lift home.

Hikaru went to bed feeling contended. But as she got further away, so did the feeling. He didn't feel at all confident. He was exhausted from his disrupted sleep cycle. No-one knew about it, of course. It was so pathetic, not being able to sleep.

He hoped it would return in time.

He hoped he could return to the Host Club with Haruhi after the results came out.

He hoped he'd passed these exams.

Because he did care. Quite a lot, actually.

He put his music player back on.

- - - - - - - - -

It was one of the worst days of his life to this point. The day they'd got the results. He looked down his.

And he'd worked so hard.

And Haruhi. What would she say? How could giving up so much time have been worth it?

They were standing out in the courtyard, each holding a slip. Haruhi's, of course, read straight As; though her distinction had somehow dropped to a merit. She didn't seem to care much. Kaoru's had transformed, to a handful of scraped As, and the rest Bs. And Hikaru's… wasn't quite as good.

"Well?" Haruhi asked, in the end.

He sighed, couldn't look at her. After all that work. "It's 100000 yen."

"Eh?" Kaoru blinked, but Haruhi understood. She took the score sheet from his unresisting hand, not noticing the smile he could no longer contain.

She read a row of Bs, and there, at the bottom, two As and a distinction. She smiled, and passed it to Kaoru.

"You did it."

"Thanks to you."

"No, you earnt them."

He was grinning even more broadly now, and without thinking about what he was doing, he was suddenly hugging her. Only she was too short, so he picked her up, and, laughing, spun her around.

"Hikaru! Put- hey- put me- Hikaru! Put me down!"

Her protests made him laugh harder, and he spun faster, perfectly aware of what he was doing now. Kaoru was chuckling too, glad to see his brother happy, but then he noticed something.

"Hikaru. People are staring at you."

He didn't care. He continued to dance with her.

"People who think Haruhi is a guy."

Hikaru set her down out of necessity more then anything else. Her face was slightly flushed from the exertion. Or something else.

"You're welcome." She gasped.


 - - - - - - - - -
Night. He was listening to the same old song again.

"Cos' love's such an old fashioned word, And love dares you, to care for people on the edge of the night, And love dares you, to change our way of caring about ourselves, This is our last dance, this is our last dance, This is ourselves, under pressure, Under pressure, pressure."

The song finished. Still unable to stop smiling to himself, in the dark where people wouldn't see, Hikaru turned the music off.

He went to sleep.

- - - - - - - - -