A/N: Some facts about Japanese Christmas in case you were wondering [Correct me if I'm wrong]: It's less of a religious holiday in Japan than it is in America [if it's religious even in America anymore O.o] and more romantic. It's not as romantic as, say, Valentine's Day. Not even that many Japanese people are Christians. So they celebrate it, but they spend it more with their romantic partner than with family or whatever. Kind of like America's New Year...?
The points of view get kind of weird, I apologize.
This story serves to say: Driving drunk is possible THE STUPIDEST thing you could ever do. When people drive drunk, they put not only themselves, but everyone around them in danger. A lot of times, it's the passenger that dies. So don't drive drunk, and don't get in a car with someone you know is drunk.
And also, I'm quite proud of myself because I did a little bit of medical research for this fic, for hypothermia. HOLY HELL, the AUTHOR actually did WORK? What IS this? It surely can't be 2012 YET?
Warm
Snow fell on the pavement, and it was a beautiful sight. There was a part of Haruhi that liked snow. This part insisted that it was gorgeous, it softened the world, made flaws less blatant. But the rest of her knew this was a frivolous opinion; that snow made it harder to heat the home, and was inconvenient in general.
Like now, when she was walking home from shopping. She could barely feel her toes, and the fact that she had had to bundle up in warm clothing hindered her movements, making the trek home even more bothersome. At least it was quiet, though, and she allowed a small smile to appear on her face. Her mother had always liked putting up little Christmas decorations around the house, making hot chocolate, lighting the candles that made the house smell good.
She was lost in thought, not even realizing that she was now full-on grinning, so she didn't hear the honk the first time. Then it blared loudly, like the person had decided to lay on the horn. She jerked around, and saw a car right behind her, with an extremely annoyed driver. She made what she hoped looked like apologetic motions, then stepped onto the side of the road. It was much more awkward to walk here, because the ground sloped a bit before coming to an area of mild forest. But the car didn't pass her. It stopped right beside her, and the window rolled down.
She felt a little seed of panic take root right where her ribcage stopped, and tried to remain calm.
"Hey, you! Are you bein' a wise-ass?" The driver leaned drunkenly out of the window. He apparently hadn't thought her gestures were very apologetic.
"No, sir. I'm sorry."
"Look, kid, you want to fight?" Haruhi realized that he must have thought she was a boy, and for a minute was offended, then realized she was probably safer that way.
"No, sir, you can drive ahead."
This time the driver got out of the car. "You asked for it, punk," he said, lurching towards her. Thankfully, his drunkenness made him slow, and she ran. She kept her arms tightly around her bags of groceries, not wanting anything to spill and be wasted, and ran into the forest. It wasn't very dense, and it made it easy for her to run between the trees. The driver's drunkenness again worked against him. She heard him slam into a couple of trees, and then she didn't hear anything else. It sounded like he'd given up, but she didn't want to stop until she was sure; she looked around while still running, didn't see anything-
SLAM.
All in one moment, her ankle felt as though it'd been stabbed with a giant knife, she tripped,and she fell, landing on her bags of groceries. Her world was entirely black for a moment, and then she was in immense pain.
She didn't move, taking stock. She'd hurt her ribcage pretty badly by landing on the groceries, and the groceries themselves had no hope, and- she couldn't even pretend to ignore it, her ankle felt like it was on fire. It was definitely broken, she didn't need to look at it to see it. The pain was making it harder and harder to think, and she started to shake. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she turned over, making sure her ankle didn't touch the ground, and sat up. Her hands were bleeding pretty badly, and she ripped off a piece of her jacket that was dangling anyway and wrapped it around her hands to stop the bleeding and keep them warm.
It was if this whole thing was a dream; her head was in a fog. She realized she didn't really have a high pain tolerance. A fine time to realize it, she thought bitterly. She'd never broken any bones before, and it hurt insanely. She remembered reading things about how to take care of a broken bone. She pulled off her boots and almost passed out at the sight of her awkwardly bent, swollen ankle. She closed her eyes.
I'm alone, she realized with an unpleasant jolt. No one comes in these woods. In a panic, she grabbed the cell phone that Hikaru and Kaoru had given her, thankful for the twins. Just to see the little message, solemn on her screen: No Service.
And that's when she let the tears fall. She didn't sob, or anything like that. She just sat frozenly, letting tears stream down her face. This was ridiculous. Seriously, how much bad luck could a person have? But then she told herself she was being stupid, that of course her father would realize she hadn't come back and come looking for her. Putting aside the fact that these woods would be one of the last places he looked, though, there was also the fact that it was Christmas Eve, and he usually stayed out somewhat late because of his job at this time of year. She sighed. It would be a while before anyone came to help her, so maybe she should try to walk. Maybe she should try to walk. She looked up at the trees. Maybe she should try to walk. She really did not want to, though.
After a while, with an enormous effort of will, she stood up on her good foot, and hopped towards where she thought the road was. In the fading light she could see her footprints, and she could also see the tree root she'd tripped over. She suddenly had the urge to kick it really hard, wanting to hurt it, but her rationality stopped her with the good reason that she didn't need two hurt feet. And the tree root wouldn't be hurt by her kicking it. She shrugged.
Because she was preoccupied with that thought, she had instinctively put her hurt foot down, and it hurt even worse than when it had first broken. She crumpled again, swearing loudly.
"Haruhi?"
She stopped swearing. "Hello?" she called, toward where the voice had been.
"Where are you?" Suddenly, the last person she would have expected to see came into view.
"Kyouya-senpai?" He saw her and his eyes widened. She wasn't surprised; she was, after all, in a forest, looking disheveled, on the ground, makeshift bandages on her hands, shivering, with tears on her face and in her eyes. He quickly crouched down beside her and tried to help her sit up.
"Why are you on the ground?" For once, she heard genuine concern in his voice, and she tried to smile, but felt too sick.
"I broke my ankle," she said, trying to keep her voice matter-of-fact, but it wavered.
Without hesitating, he gently took her leg and pushed up the hem of her pants. His hands were those of a doctor. "Yes, it's broken, but not too badly." And then he looked at her in the eyes. "I'm going to have to set it. I'm experienced, so no need to worry, but it's going to be quite painful." He was slipping back into his regular, cold, informative voice, and caught himself.
"It helps to hold something, like a branch or piece of clothing, and squeeze it. It helps the pain." She reached out and took his hand. For a moment, they looked at eachother, then he cleared his throat. "I'm going to need both hands, so..." She grabbed his arm instead, and her grip was already firm. "Close your eyes," he said. "Three... two... one." She squeezed his arm so tightly he was afraid she'd break it for a second, and made a squeaky noise of pain, but then let out her breath.
"How does that feel?" he asked.
"Better," she said, her face white as the snow. "But it still hurts."
"It's going to. We need to get you to a doctor who has more medical experience." He made a makeshift splint from a stick and a strip of fabric he pulled from his jacket without even thinking about it.
She laughed weakly as he did. "I wonder how much this'll add onto my debt...?"
He didn't reply. He had just noticed, with some alarm, how cold she was. Her skin was like ice, and she was past the point of shivering. She may be getting hypothermia, he thought. He pulled off his jacket and put it around her, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect.
He picked her up, knowing she couldn't walk. He wasn't as strong as Mori, who could sling her over his shoulder with ease, or as gallant as Tamaki, who would hold her like a fragile princess and ask permission to pick her up first, but she was light enough, he was tall enough, and he had a firm grip on her as they made their way towards the road.
She rested her head on his shoulder. She wanted to fall asleep... She was so tired... She was also so warm, especially because he'd given her his jacket... It was so warm... She liked his jacket... Now why would he do something nice like give her a jacket... Would it give him any benefit... Suddenly she opened her eyes halfway. "Kyouya-senpai, why were you in the woods?" she asked.
"Hm?" he said, not looking at her, striding forward toward the road, which was visible now. "I had been walking... in the area, and I happened to see the driver confront you. I followed you to make sure he didn't harm you, and when I saw he was going back to his car, I called in the license plate number to the police. He should be in custody by now. Of course, I had no idea where you'd gone. But I eventually found you." Suddenly, he realized she'd fallen asleep, lulled by his voice. Her head rested on his shoulder, and he could feel the cold through his shirt and sweatshirt. He tried to walk more smoothly, not wanting to bump her and wake her up or hurt her more, but he wanted to hurry. He had already texted one of his chauffeurs to come get them to bring them quickly to the nearest hospital. He would have to call Ranka-san and let him know Haruhi was in safe hands.
'Merry Christmas, Haruhi!' Her mother tousled her hair and handed her a candy cane. 'I got a day off work today, so I could spend it with my favourite kid! What do you say we go to the park?'
Haruhi grinned happily and grabbed her mom's hand in her own tiny one. 'Let's go, Mom!'
It was snowing outside, and as she watched, the snow got lighter, and lighter, and lighter...
"She broke her ankle in the woods. I'll be paying for the medical bills... Ohtori Kyouya." A voice started from far off and got closer. She opened her eyes, and discovered with some surprise that from her knee down on her left side, the side she'd broken her ankle on, it was numb. It felt rather pleasant. The second thing she noticed was that she was lying down; Kyouya was no longer holding her, and something about that made her feel a little empty. The third thing she noticed was that she was in a hospital. She shuddered; she didn't have good memories associated with hospitals.
"It looks like she's awake," a nurse that had been talking to Kyouya said. Kyouya, whose back had been facing her, turned and looked at her. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I'm fine, thank you. Been better."
The nurse handed him some paperwork. "We've got her on painkillers now, just keep her on them in this dosage for the next couple of days. She should come back every week to be checked on again."
"Every week?" asked Haruhi. "Isn't that kind of... excessive?"
"It's an Ohtori hospital," said Kyouya. "We give the best to our patients."
"Yes, but how much is this going to cost? I don't need to come back," she protested.
He put his hand over hers, silencing her. "It's all taken care of. Speaking of which..."
"Haruhi! I am SO sorry that Daddy wasn't there! You must have been terrified! It's a good thing that Kyouya-chan was there~!" Her father appeared beside Kyouya, flamboyant as ever, scaring the nurses. "You poor thing, don't worry, Daddy will wait on you hand on foot!"
"Dad, I'm fine, it's not like a terminal illness, I just broke my ankle." Haruhi sat up, and then she saw her other visitors in the hallway outside her room.
The entire host club stood outside, dressed in what they obviously thought were casual clothes. Every girl [and the occassional boy] who walked by them swooned, and some looked even intimidated. But the club didn't notice. They were all trying to look inside her hospital room, seeing if she was alright. Tamaki saw her sit up.
"Haruhi's alive!" he cried happily. They all cheered. He saw the deadpan look she was giving him and gave her his puppy-dog eyes. "Haruhi, my daughter, the nurses refuse us entry! They claim that too many visitors will make your condition worse, and I would never dream of making your despair any deeper! So alas, we shall wait outside for you to come back, in despair ourselves!"
She rolled her eyes, getting up. The nurse helped her into a wheelchair. Her ankle was clad in a cumbersome white cast.
"By the way, Haruhi," Kyouya called in a low voice before she joined the hosts outside her room, "here." He handed her a small wrapped box. "Merry Christmas."
"Ah, thank you, senpai. I made something for all of you guys, but it's at my house." Her father pushed her out the door, and she was enveloped by the hosts in a literal meaning of the term 'group hug'.
She pulled the wrapping off the small box, making sure not to tear it, so she could save it and use it again. It looked like a jewelry box. She opened it, and inside, on a nest of black velvet, lay a pendant. It looked like two hearts intertwined, one smaller than the other. She blushed, then wondered why on earth Kyouya would get her something like that. He surely didn't love her. Then she noticed there was writing on the back of the box. She turned it over to look at it.
The Mother-Daughter Pendant, it read. The two hearts on the pendant symbolize the love between a mother and daughter, and how they will always have a bond. She smiled, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes. Then she laughed as she caught the double meaning.
As she put it on, she thought that she'd never had such a warm Christmas as this.
A/N: You all have permission to destroy me in your minds for that disgustingly sappy ending. Commence destruction.
I swear on... I swear on my DVD box set of Ouran, that I didn't even mean there to be a double meaning for the Mother-Daughter thing, I was just like, 'It'd be sweet if he got her something to remind her of her mother,' and then as I was typing out the description for the Mother-Daughter pendant, I was like 'Ohey! Kyouya is her mother!' XD
And also, I meant to put this somewhere in the story, but I couldn't find anywhere that wouldn't make the already awkward story flow even awkward...er. So pretty much: Kyouya had been on his way to her house to give her her present, when he saw the confrontation. Now why on earth was he walking there, we'll never know. Maybe he was embarrassed XD He didn't want his chauffeurs to be spreading rumours amongst themselves about him visiting a girl. Maybe he wanted to visit with her for a while and didn't want to make his drivers wait...? No, actually he did because it was a plot device.