"No way."Haruhi spoke flatly, shutting down Tamaki's suggestion to eat at his favorite French restaurant. "The last time we went you refused to translate the menu and fed me bugs."
"Technically, snails aren't bugs." Tamaki tried to defend himself only tobe caught off guard by Haruhi's intense stare. Against his better judgement, he laughed.
"Is that the look you use to intimidate the toddlers?"
Her glare softened as caught herself. "Sorry, sometimes I forget how to interact with people my own age."
"You aren't that socially removed are you?" The moment the words left his lips Tamaki felt instant regret. He knew how seriously she was affected by the Hikaru situation (whatever it was). If it was bad enough to make her pull away from her makeshift family, reason would suggest that she wasn't close with anyone. Right? He took Haruhi's silence and embarrassed blush as a yes.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude. Apparently I'm not as much of a gentleman as I used to be."
"Don't worry. My coworkers hold a grudge against me for being so close to the headmaster and his son. Im too ashamed to talk to most of my friends, and I live alone. Aside from the kids, you're the only real social interaction I get."
"Why?"
"The kids kind of have to talk to me." She admitted with a shy chuckle. "I feed them."
"That's not what I meant." Tamaki sighed as he approached his destination. After his talk with Kyouya, he'd decided that it was time to reintroduce Haruhi to her friends. In order to do so as comfortably as possible he was determined to figure out what made her leave in the fist place.
Against his typical flair for the luxurious, he found himself opening the door to Haruhi's favorite traditional styled restaurant.
"What exactly are you asking?"
Tamaki didn't respond until the two were seated and had ordered their drinks. He confusion on Haruhi's face filled him with guilt. Opting for the direct approach, for once, he asked "Why don't you talk to anyone? Why did you ignore all your friends?"
Haruhi remained silent, taking several greedy sips her after before sighing deeply. "Have you asked Hikaru?"
"He won't talk about you at all. It's almost like he can't. He just gets so depressed."
She simply scoffed. "Why? He's the one who ruined everything." Haruhi spat venomously.
Tamaki's curiosity had been piqued. Rarely since having met her ten or so years ago, had he ever heard her so spiteful.
"I want you to be able to see everyone again. We all miss you." She didn't respond.
"I'm having a party next week to celebrate my father's birthday. We'd both love for you to attend."
"Why?" She asked softly.
"Because we've all missed you. The group can' be a family if one of us is missing." Haruhi remained silent, seemingly considering the invitation.
"Will I have to see him?"
"Not if you don't want to."
Yet another pause...
"Do I still have to tell you what happened?"
Tamaki let out an exasperated sigh. "How can I help you if I don't even know what's wrong?"
With a sigh echoing Tamaki's, she rolled her eyes.
"I'll tell you what happened only if you promise to keep quiet until I finish."
After recieving a nod from across the table, she begrudgingly began her story.
"Back in high school when we were second years Hikaru asked me out on our first real date. We got along great- almost as if his hyper personality matched my rational one and brought out the energetic side of myself that I kept hidden."
Haruhi paused to let a a small rueful smile escape.
"I knew I loved him pretty early on and he always reassured me that he felt the same. I had thought it was strange of him to ask to keep our relationship a secret, but I went along with it regardless. As time went by I only got more and more deluded, never questioning why his relationship with Kaoru had become so strained or why he would get so clingy. After my father passed, he stayed around constantly to keep me company, even asking me to move in with him. Months later he started getting...possessive?
"He knew that you all were basically my only friends, but for some reason after all the years we spent together he said that he didn't trust me with you. Eventually he got more particular about how I chose to spend my time."
Haruhi paused, taking another sip from her glass while Tamaki stared her her with his face blank but his mind racing. His gut was telling him that the story could only get much, much worse. The way Haruhi was avoiding eye contact only confirmed those fears.
"He stopped coming home on time. I would be finishing dinner by myself by time he came home. Sometimes he was drunk, sometimes he was pissed I hadn't made him anything, and sometimes he just ignored me altogether. When I asked where he was he always claimed to be out with you guys. The fact that he wouldn't let me see my friends but he spent all his time partying with you had me absolutely livid and I told him so. One night he came home shitfaced drunk and smelling like perfume so I just snapped.
"I told him that he was driving me crazy and that I was going to leave."
"Why did you stay so long in the first place?" Tamaki asked. As levelheaded as she was, how could she not see how unhealthy her relationship was earlier?
"Hikaru is not exactly the kind of guy you just leave."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" His voice was dripping with anger but Haruhi only sighed, completely expecting this reaction.
"I mean that he made it difficult for me to get away. This was during the summer so I didn't have class and barely left the house. I was either reading, or cleaning, or..." Her voice trailed off as she what to say.
"Or what?"
"Or he just wouldn't let me out of the house." She admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "When I said he was picky about how I spent my time, I meant that the watched my every move and barely let me leave."
"You're a grown woman Haruhi. How the hell did he keep you locked up?" He started to worry about her. What did Hikaru actually do to her? Apparently to Haruhi his comment sounded less like worry and more like mockery.
"I was terrified of him! Everything just escalated so quickly- at first he was just clingy. I never though he would ever get violent. When he got home drunk he would get furious about the smallest details. He'd call me a whore when I asked why I couldn't go out with everyone saying that 'no woman should only have male friends'. He got so aggressive at times that he would grab me hard enough to leave bruises."
"He hit you?"
"He did. I know it sounds dumb but I really did love him. He cut me off from everyone but him. I was so removed from the rest f the world that I actually let myself believe all the shit he gave me about going to get help. When he would wake up and see all the ,marks he left I would accept his apologies because he was all I had. I had no job, no money, for Christ's sake I didn't even have a cell phone! By time I realized that nothing would chad I also realized that I had nowhere to go. I let him convince me that you resented me because I hadn't kept in contact. I had no friends or family."
She dropped her head into her hands as her voice began to tremble.
"Haruhi-"
"The night I told him I was leaving he completely lost control. He beat me so badly that my right eye was swollen shut for a week. When he left the next morning, I called a cab to go all the way to Misuzu's place. I had noting when I left. Misuzu even had to pay the driver for me. I pent the rest of the summer working in Karuizawa. When Fall came around I lived on campus. Eventually I saved enough money working at a campus coffee shop and what was left of Dad's money that I was able to move into the apartment I have now."
"If you had let us know-"
"How could I? I was humiliated! And as far as I knew you all resented me anyway. You're right. I'm a grown woman who let herself get stuck living with an asshole. The worst part is that I was so blinded by him that I didn't realize that I was fucked until it was too late."
Seeing tears stream down her face Tamaki reached for her hand. "You re not responsible for his actions. You had no way of knowing that he was going to do what her did."
"There were so many signs!"
"That doesn't change the fact that what he did was inexcusable. Come on." He commanded, standing up and offering his hand to Haruhi as an invitation. "Let's go."
"Where?"
"I figured we could go to my place. I'd be an ass for making you go home and be alone after all this. Since we haven't eaten yet we can just order pizza and I can get a guest room fixed up for you."
"You don't have to start treating me differently now." Haruhi pouted.
"I know but I don't want you to go home feeling depressed."
After a moment Haruhi agreed to stay over. She dismissed herself quickly to use the restroom, granting Tamaki a golden opportunity.
He whipped out his cell phone and dialed the numbers he needed.
"Hello?"
"Kyouya, meet me at my house tonight. We need to talk."
"About what exactly?"
"What we're going to do with Hikaru."
Tamaki snapped his phone shut and waited patiently for Haruhi's return.
