This is just a little project that I started years ago. I recently found it and decided I'd edit it and post it, seeing if this was worthy of any reviews. Because that's how curiosity works.

Italics are flashbacks or memories. Don't get too confused :P

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. I do own everybody in this chapter, because that's how I roll!

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Bump. Ba. Bump. Ba. Bump.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Bump. Ba. Bump. Ba. Bump. Footsteps coming from the end of the hallway, fast approaching.

Yuki had been sitting in his school's office for what felt like an eternity. He sat at the far end of the only row of chairs that were there, desperately trying to keep his distance from anybody and everybody that was in the office, but mostly the two others – the two guys – that had been sent to the office too, waiting for their parents to arrive and discuss what happened.

A hard push into the locker.

But it's no surprise what happened.

Being thrown to the ground, so hard that his face jumped and crashed twice.

The boys laughed, and they made their way towards him.

No surprise at all. There had been warnings, but he ignored them.

He sat in his chair, properly poised with a straight back, crossed legs, and his hands held together. He wanted to show them that no matter the harm they did, he would always be the better person, and nothing was going to stop him. Even though he thought this, he tugged at the sleeve of his cotton trench coat, hoping he could go away and hide. He was trying to calm down his anxiety, but it didn't work. Not even for a second.

"FAG!"

His eyes closed at the abrupt cough. Of course they were going to do this here; they had done it earlier. Was there really no place for Yuki to hide?

His blue eyes opened, and he shifted them and glanced at the two boys.

"That homo is lucky somebody came when they did," the other guy said rather loudly.

It was all too apparent that he was trying to get his attention, or the attention of the office workers who he knew wouldn't pay attention, or rather care. He paused when he saw his companion looking behind him and smirking. He too turned his head and his dark eyes fell on Yuki.

Yuki looked at the two of them with curious eyes ,slightly hidden behind his brown bangs. He tilted his head, trying to make it look like he was a little lost puppy, but in reality, he was just waiting for them to say something. He hoped he could look right through them and see their inner insecurities like they had found his.

"Fucking fag!" the guy with dark eyes swore aloud. Surely somebody in the office had heard this, but nobody turned their head. So nobody heard.

No – somebody heard. They just didn't care. They never did. Why should they, especially in the high walls of the supposedly safest place in the school?

His friend stood up and glared right at Yuki. "If you knew what was good for you, you'd stay out of our business… Or else!"

Yuki stood up and looked at him the way that the guy looked at him. "What else can you do to me?" he challenged.

The guy raised a fist and looked Yuki squarely in the eyes. "This!"

Yuki yelped and found himself quickly sat down, looking towards the ground at his feet. His back hurt when he sat down, or maybe it was his chest. He had gotten hit in both places, so it was hard to tell.

He tried to push himself off the ground and run away, before they could do anything else to him. But it didn't work. The guys stood before him – he saw their feet – and one of them kicked him in the chest. He rolled over in pain, holding his chest, protecting it. He felt like he was going to be sick. He heard them laugh, and then they kicked him in the back, and he cried out in pain. He was open, defenseless. There was nothing he could do. Whatever he did do, they always found a way around and did their worst. What else could he do but to stop caring?

Yuki stared at his feet, wishing that somebody in the office would ask him what was wrong, or at least see the uncomfortable situation that he was in. Nothing. He was sure that they didn't see anything. Or if they did, they wouldn't. He didn't blame them.

Why should they care about somebody that was different, a sin, or an abomination to God? If it was for anything except for what he was, he certainly wouldn't care. But because it was being gay, and there isn't anything wrong with it, he wouldn't care.

It makes you less trusting.

On the floor, hurt, and almost unresponsive. What sort of things are you supposed to do in that situation? Wait for a savior, right? His hopes became real when he heard Riku's voice, and then he saw him appear at the end of the hallway. He thought he'd be saved, rescued. It was nearly the same feeling he had when we started to go out. He'd be my prince charming, and everything would be better. But he sneered. And stared coldly at Yuki.

"At least that fag is off my back, now," Riku said before walking away. Yuki cried out but nothing worked.

His trust, his savior. Everything was gone.

It made everything feel cold and numb.

So cold… It was gone… That's why everything was now and forever numb.

"Guess he's not going to protect you," one of the guys sneered as he kicked Yuki in the chest again.

"This is outrageous!"

"Mrs. Fall, I'd wish you'd calm down a bit. This is-"

"It's Ms. Fall! Not Mrs. I lost my husband shortly before Yuki was born."

"Yes, well. I'm sorry to hear that, but you must calm down."

Hinata Fall looked down at the small, balding principal that sat before her. She was clearly upset, but who should blame her? She had gotten a call from the school that basically explained that her son had a little problem and she needed to come right away or Yuki risked expulsion. But it was no little matter, it was huge. And she wasn't going to take it.

She was overly pissed.

When she saw her son, and she was invited into the principal's office, she took a second glance at her son and stormed into the office, yelling even before the door closed. After the principal sat down, she slammed her palms on his desk and got into his face, yelling about how this was injustice, and how her Yuki hadn't done anything wrong. This was utter bullshit.

"Calm down? Calm down! You want me to calm down," she yelled, her usual calm voice now high-pitched and out of control. "How am I supposed to calm down? Yuki was beat up in the middle of a school's hallway; and people walked by and didn't do anything."

"Well, this school doesn't tolerate fighting. We have a strict no fighting policy," the principal stated.

She almost didn't let him finish. "Toleration? Fighting? How did he fight? I want you to look out there at those two boys and tell me if Yuki fought them or not! They have no bruises, no marks, nothing!"

"It's beside the point that he fought. I don't decide the rules, I just follow them," the principal said. Hinata went to say something, but the principal held up his hands in defense. "Why don't you sit?" he suggested as he gestured towards the seat that was behind her. She looked at him, then at the seat, then back at him. She narrowed her eyes and sat in the seat.

"This isn't right," she said.

"What isn't?" the principal said, raising an eyebrow.

"The attitude of the school! My son is different, I know. But everybody hear treats him like an outcast!"

"Miss Fall, I am quite aware of your son's sexual orientation. But let me tell you that that does not affect what we think of him," the principal said, trying to defend his school.

She quickly stood up. "Do you know-" she stopped when the principal narrowed his eyes and nodded towards the seat. "Do you know what my son deals with everyday when he gets home? He runs into the house, and straight into his bedroom."

"Most children do that nowadays," the principal said. "Mine do."

"Then he starts banging his head against the door. Repeating words. All the things they've said to him," she said.

"Yuki?" Hinata asked from the foot of the stairs. "Are you okay?"

There was no response. She sighed and started to make her way back to the kitchen, but stopped when she heard a thudding noise.

"Yuki?" she repeated. Still no answer.

She began to make her way up the stairs, the sound of the thudding getting louder and louder with each step that she took. She looked towards Yuki's bedroom and heard noises, apart from the thuds. Confused, she stepped towards the door and put her ear against it, but was started when the door was hit and she backed up a bit. She stepped towards the door again and saw her son's shadow from under the door. She heard him talking.

"Fag. Fag. Fag. Fag."

She was taken back.

"Fucking fag. Get the hell out of here, fag. Get the hell out of here, fag."

There were tears in his voice, and Hinata was frozen with fear. Where had all of this come from?

"Yuki, are you alright?" She knew better, but she wondered if he would let her in.

The thuds stopped, and Yuki stopped speaking. He cracked opened the door and looked at his mother through the tiny crack of the door. His blue eyes were puffy, and there was a faint line of dried tears leading down his face.

"I'm fine, mom. Just not feeling well," he said. His voice choked back tears.

It hurt Hinata to ignore the obvious problems with her son. But she couldn't do anything if he wouldn't let her. "Alright, Yuki." She smiled. "Dinner's ready," she said. "I made your favorite!"

Yuki moved a lock of hair out of his face. "I'm not really hungry, mom." He smiled, but Hinata could easily tell that it was fake. She knew her son all too well. "Maybe I'll come down later."

"Alright." She tried to move on her own accord, but the door was practically in her face.

She walked towards the stairs. When she reached them, she heard the repetitive thuds again, and she knew that it didn't matter what she tried, she couldn't do anything.

"The only time I've seen him happy this past year was when he started to date somebody," she said after explaining the problems that her was having. "But he still would sometimes race upstairs and say things about himself."

"Well, Miss Fall. I am quite sorry, but there's nothing that I can do."

Hinata just about snapped. "Nothing you can do? Nothing you can do? There's a lot that you can do! First off, you could've stopped people from harassing him. Second, you don't have to expel him!"

"Miss Fall, like I said, I have to expel him. Besides, it's not me who decides; it's the school," he explained.

"Then I'll sue the school!" Hinata decided.

"There's no need to make such a rash decision."

"I'm suing the school for discrimination against my son-"

"Miss, you're not thinking seriously-"

"-just because he is gay! Where is the justice in that?-"

"We'll find some way to help you son, Miss Fall!" the principal said aloud.

Hinata looked straight at him, almost trying to look through him. "Help?" she asked. "What kind of help are you thinking of?"

"Well, maybe he could talk to a counselor or a therapist about his problems."

"He's not sick!" Hinata yelled. "The students in this school are." She placed her hands on the desk and leaned forward until she was eye to eye with the principal. "What do you plan on doing about this?"

He paled, sweat forming on his forehead. He cleared his throat. "Yes. Well… we'll think of something. Just don't sue the school," he said. "Just go home, and keep him there until we give you notification on what we're going to do. This will not count as an expulsion."

Hinata stared at the principal. She stared at the cold, heartless man who was surely lying through his teeth. She had to get out of here. "Fine," she said, pushing herself back and heading for the door.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Bump. Ba. Bump. Ba. Bump.

At first Yuki was listening to the clock, but it started to slow down. Slow down so much, that it started to sound like his heart beating. One would've expected it to be faster, but it was slower than anything he had ever heard before. Maybe it had actually been his heart that he was listening to? It didn't matter, though. He had lost count of the time he had been here. How long ago had it been since his mother arrived and stormed into Mr. Tarrow's office? He could somewhat hear them from out here. He couldn't exactly hear what they were saying, but he could hear that they were yelling. The principal must've pissed his mother off.

The guys' parents showed up. They just stared at Yuki, almost didn't even come near him except to grab a seat and pull it away… As far away as they possibly could. Now he was isolated - isolated on his own little island. An island where he was the one who decided who got to leave and who got to stay. And it was going to be Yuki that stayed, because he wasn't going to run away, even with how much he so desired it..

Yuki smiled at them, and one of the fathers looked at him with contorted disgust. But he smiled even harder. They knew that he wouldn't leave.

He went to shift how he was seated because the chair was very uncomfortable, but a jolt of pain shot through his body and he couldn't move. One of the guys over there must've noticed the pain on his face, because he started to let out a low laugh. He elbowed his friend, and the friend took notice. Then the fathers did. Then they all started to laugh, except for the mothers who just smiled to themselves, probably trying to seem like they were proper ladies.

If only they were proper enough to raise their children right. Then they might have been the best family there ever was. That was a fat chance, though.

The door to the principal's office opened, and Hinata hurried out, putting her coat on. "Come on, Yuki," she said. "We're getting out of here."

Yuki quickly stood up and regretted it as soon as he moved. He winced, but ignored. He started to make his way towards the door and pass the two families that stood in front of there. He opened the door and held it open for his mom. Then he glared at the boys who sat in front of him.

One of the mother's had noticed it. "Excuse me, miss," she called out to Yuki's mother. His mother stopped in front of the women. "You need to contain that little sin of yours. If it wasn't for him, we both wouldn't be here today. Wouldn't you agree?"

Hinata narrowed her blue eyes and slapped the woman across the face. One of the boys called out to their mom and her apparent husband cried out a small honey. The woman sat there, confused at what just happened.

"Don't you be talking about my son when you can't even control your own child," Hinata said before she walked out of the office and Yuki let go of the door.

Hinata wasted no time bringing her son to the hospital. It would've been more help if he had gone earlier, but there wasn't much that she could do when the school didn't care about one of its pupils and she had to talk to that disgraceful person who was called the principal.

The doctor had walked out of the room after looking at Yuki's body. It was terrible. Yuki's body was splotched with bruises; two of the major bruises were in the middle of his back and chest, where he had apparently gotten most of the beating. His face was all red too and was slightly bleeding, but it had quickly stopped. His nose had taken some damage, but it was luckily not broken.

Yuki felt uncomfortable sitting in the doctor's office shirtless, and there was a slight breeze. He struggled to put his shirt back on, but the pain in his body was just overbearing; he couldn't do it. Hinata stood up and draped the trench coat over his shoulders. She led him over to a seat and sat beside him as soon as he sat down. She held the trench coat shut, hoping that it was at least keeping him warm.

She looked at her son and wished that he would say something. Anything so she could know that he was alright. But the only time he had spoken was when the doctor had asked what happened and where he was hit. Yuki didn't even tell her any of that happened. When he was telling the doctor what happened, she nearly cried at what she heard, but she held it in so she could be strong for her son.

She tensed up when Yuki out of nowhere rested his head on her shoulder, an action he hadn't done for months. She searched for his hand and squeezed it, letting him know that she was here, and that everything was going to be okay.

If only everything was so reassuring.

"Hey, Riku," Yuki asked. The bell had just rung for lunch, and the class was slowly making their way out of the class and off to wherever they wanted to go. Yuki bit his lip, afraid to simply ask, but he had been planning for days. He put his hands together and quickly bowed when the boy approached him. "I need to talk to you in private. Will you please come with me?"

Yuki raised his head, opened one of his eyes, and saw Riku look towards his friends. They quietly laughed and said something about seeing him later. Riku turned his attention back towards Yuki and nodded. "Sure," he said. "Where are we going?"

Yuki's eyes quickly began to glimmer with excitement as his body quickly shot up. He brightly smiled and went to grab Riku's wrist so he could lead the boy to where he wanted to go. He quickly stopped himself, just inches away. Riku must have noticed because he chuckled.

"Well?" he asked, getting into Yuki's face and grinning. "Where are we going?"

Yuki's blue eyes widened and his face immediately turned red with heat. He took a step backwards and nervously laughed. He wasn't expecting that. He knew that Riku was a popular guy with the ladies, for he had great moves such as that, but Yuki never expected that Riku would pull a move like that with him. It made him feel special, but he knew that he couldn't get his hopes up. What if Riku was just playing along?

"Well…" Yuki started to say, but his sight fell onto Riku's sparkling silver eyes, the eyes that caused Yuki to start to like him. He froze, unable to move. He looked away and spoke. "How about we go to the roof? It's peaceful up there."

"Sure," Riku said.

He made the move and grabbed Yuki's wrist and ran out of the hallway. Confused, all Yuki could do was follow. Why hadn't he done that? How could Riku have done it so easily? It made Yuki's head spin. They ran through the hallway and lots of people turned their heads and watched them run by, almost as if it was weird that they were running together. They climbed up the stairs to get to the roof and the bright light nearly blinded Yuki when they opened the door. Riku let go of Yuki's wrist and walked over to the cement railing and leaned against it. He smiled his ever so sweet smile at Yuki, and Yuki felt like he was going to melt.

"So, what is it that you needed to say?" Riku asked.

"Um…" Yuki started to say.

He had practiced for days of how he would say it, and it was on the tip of his tongue, but it just wouldn't come out. He bit the bottom of his lip and looked towards the ground. He mumbled something, which even he couldn't hear. He raised his head and looked at Riku through his bangs. Riku looked skeptical at him.

"Well?" Riku asked, holding the final consonant.

"I like you!" Yuki burst out. He quickly covered his mouth, surprised that he so boldly shouted what he wanted to say. He closed his eyes and looked at the ground, embarrassed.

Riku didn't look surprised. "You like me? Anything else?"

Yuki tried to say something, but only a small squeak escaped from his mouth. He kept his gaze on the ground of the rooftop, afraid to see Riku's expression. The silence was unbearable; he knew he shouldn't have confessed to Riku, but what else was he supposed to do? Wait… Then everything wouldn't be all screwed up. But it was all too late. He screwed up. He screwed up bad.

His face began to immediately heat up and turn red when Riku had grabbed his chin and tilted it upward. Riku was standing in front of Yuki, his silver-like eyes staring into Yuki's blue ones. Yuki's heart began to race and he thought Riku could hear. He stared, wide-eyed.

"I like you Yuki-kun," Riku said as he leaned down and kissed Yuki softly on the lips. He raised his head and chuckled to himself when he saw Yuki beat red. "Will you go out with me?"

The look of disbelief on Yuki's face disappeared as he widely smiled and nearly jumped at Riku and hugged him.

This moment almost seemed like a fairytale to Yuki, nothing could ruin it. Surely Riku was the prince, the knight and shining armor, and Yuki was the main character, always wishing that the happy ending would come soon and never end.

It felt amazing.

Yuki shifted himself in his bed and turned onto his side, holding one of his pillows close to him. As he slept, a tear began to form in his eyes as he relived the memories that he had with Riku.

This was the moment when the prince charming came and made everything okay. He had done it when Snow White was asleep and unresponsive. Same with Sleeping Beauty. One kiss from their Prince Charming, and they woke up, and all the bad things went away, because the prince had recently dealt with them. Why couldn't that happen to Yuki right now?

As he watched indisbelief as his boyfriend – no, his Prince Charming – left, he didn't know what to do. He just laid there on the ground, numb. Didn't care what the guys did to him. There was only one thing that bothered him.

"At least that fag is off my back, now," Riku had said. It echoed out in his head.

"NOOOOOOO!" Yuki called out, the numbness finally leaving his body. He sat upright in his bed, tears streaming down his face. He looked around, sad to realize that he was in room. If only he had the strength to call out to Riku when he was on the floor… Maybe Riku would've quickly transformed into a knight, and gotten rid of the two guys.

But it was all over, and it was already a distant memory. Yuki felt his throat begin to catch with tears and he quickly covered himself with his bed sheet. Under the covers, he brought his hands up to his eyes and began to cry silently. He felt so lost, so confused.

The love that he had was just gone. It was never going to come back. The newly formed hole in his heart would never be filled, because of the lack of trust that he now had.

Since when had the world become such a cruel place? For the longest time, people encouraged diversity more than anything. But nowadays, when you're different, you're a sin. You can't do certain things, dress certain ways, or love certain people without being a sin and cursed to be sent to the fiery pits of hell.

What sort of a society is this? When one can't even live freely…

We're all trapped.