"Deepest River"

Chapter 2

She sat in her room on top of her sheet. Since she could remember, her family had never bought mattresses. Thick cotton sheets had always been good enough for them, and conveniently rolls up to fit in the closet every morning. Such a space saver, she never wondered why rich people haven't thought of things this way.

The heat from yesterday disappeared as quickly as it had first appeared. It was a mild cool day today, quite unlike the type of summer she was used to, moisture in the air and on the leaves outside. It felt like the weather knew exactly she was feeling. No, it wasn't raining, but you could feel it was going to.

She stared into the stained ridges of the corners of the bedroom, made from when she had sprayed a water gun up in the house when she was little. She had loved this small apartment, and never felt reminded of their wealth by it. It was a simple home full of delicious memories, all flavours at the tip of her tongue. She still remembered her father holding her up with his hands before the first day of school, and a vague image of her mother cooking on the stove.

Haruhi looked down now. She was going to be leaving all this behind, for how long she didn't know, just as no one knew when the war would end. She drew a logic conclusion that when the war ended, she would be able to return.

As she stayed with her mind on the subject, she filled the saucer on top of the stove with milk and warmed it. She sat down on the table with a piece of paper and pencil while waiting for the milk to warm, placing a slice of red bean bread in her mouth as she did so. What will she write to her dad? She would have to inform him of this sudden arrangement, in case his regiment should ever stop into town, and he finding his daughter missing would only set him off with arms about him.

She decided to keep it short, explaining that she was merely accepting the favour of a friend in pursuing education, and she would return home as soon as possible.

There it was again, the word "favour" popped in automatically as she reviewed this plan. She did not like the fact that he was always so nice to her, and she never thanking him properly, only giving him sardonic glances once in a while when he went into a fit of being "neglected by Haruhi." Apparently he was a lot like his father, as Kyouya had once mentioned to her, and the twins had agreed.

Oh yeah…she thought. Hikaru and Kaoru…she wondered where they were. Neither of them had sought to keep in touch with her either, even though she had thought they were pretty close with her during the school year. Graduation had been one of the moments in life that you just could not forget for her. The twins had everything planned for her, being the only ones in the Host Club that still remained at school with her. They bought her gown, her shoes, her bag, her earrings, everything! They even forced her into a salon that day, previous to the dance which followed.

Now, one must wonder, how did Haruhi go as a girl instead of a male companion, which she has been so suave in the persuasion of other girls?

In their last year, after all their senpais in the host club had graduated, Hikaru and Kaoru announced on the speakers for the whole school that third year Fujioka Haruhi, the beloved "natural" of the infamous Host Club, was biologically, a girl. Of course, the girls who designated her went into hysterics, not because they were disgusted at flirting with a girl, but because they lost the one guy they had admired so much to the sex they were so familiar with. Most girls accepted the fact sadly, but one had even ran crying to her, then placed her hands onto Haruhi's chest to check if it was true of not. This surprised Haruhi to a great extent, and was careful to "heighten" her sense of the sexes, if possible at all.

To supplement the reaction of almost all the girls at the school, the guys were giving her looks too. However, she could not even began to apprehend what they meant when they clicked their tongues at her as she walked down a banister of stairs, or when then continually asked for help with homework, when they had never done so before when Haruhi was a guy. She helped them, yes, but all the love letters slipped into her desk was really getting annoying.

The twins shook their heads at this, and so played the announcement so perfectly as the beginning of the school year that no one was sure to ever denounce Haruhi's gender. She remembered reading during the announcement, not even noticing the many eyes turned towards her until the very end. Afterwards, Kaoru told her to wear the school dress, yellow and light, but she just could not get used to it. Hikaru made no attempt to stop Kaoru, only giving Haruhi that if she felt the dress uncomfortable, she should just switch back to male clothing.

She was truly thankful both of them as the thought back. They had thought she deserved a memorable year at high school, even though she broke the vase. They even took her skiing once, thinking that she had probably never seen snow, which she hadn't.

She realized yet again, as she sat in her old kitchen, how she missed the school. She felt heavy inside her heart as she realized she should have done her part back then, giving them more than she had.

Trying to dispel this, she walked over briskly over to the stove and practically threw the hot milk down her throat, hoping the tinge would make her think of something else. She copied the note she wrote, one to send and one to leave at home incase her father ever comes back.

Kyouya sat on his seat looking fatigued as he watched Haruhi from the shaded window, coming towards the car hulling a luggage which probably weighed more than she ever will. He was not pleased that his driver had not helped her out sooner, but seeing his employer's angry glance, the driver set off immediately, apologizing to Haruhi frantically, with fear of getting fired before the paycheck landed in his hands. The driver was about to open the door for Haruhi, but she did it herself, saying that it was okay. Kyouya looked at this. She growing up as a commoner will always leave her with things he and the rest of rich people will never know of. She will always be the one to work hard, but—here, he thought in another perspective—the world did not always reward hard workers. He knew this clearly.

"Hello Kyouya," Haruhi said cheerfully, wearing a jeans and a simple t-shirt. She probably thought that a dress would be too much for going on a plane, and in fact, it was true. All the times he saw ladies in first class wearing elaborate dresses, and then having to hear them complain with distress that they could not sort out their frills or something like that, was just plain annoying. Wisdom of the commoners were always so logical, so straight-to-the-point, that he could not see anything wrong with it. They had developed their ways to get around life without riches; their survival chances were much higher.

"Glad to see you're coming with me," he replied with a smile. "I notified Tamaki already, he should be expecting us in the airport of Paris."

"Huh? But how could you have known that I would say yes?" Haruhi questioned. Certainly, Kyouya could not know everything!

"I knew you would come," was all he said. She decided that would have to satisfy her, knowing that he would not go further even if she pursued the subject. Looking out the window as the tired driver started the limo, she realized how out-of-bounds she felt in the limo. She never realized how wealthy could get so materialistic and dependent of fine luxury, when people like her got on just fine without them. All the resources and money they saved…or, could not afford to spend that is…

Haha…she thought to herself. More ponderings of the way the world should be, and she would go insane. She was around rich people, sitting beside a person who could probably buy a small city with their amount of money, and that was all, all in the moderation of how life went for her.

They ceased to talk, but Kyouya observed quietly as they drove on, over the highways, waterways, tunnels, and eventually they could see the airport from afar. She had nothing she really wanted in the world, only a few basic things. Such a person rarely seen these days, one of them surely liked her back then.

However, it was not him. He had always stayed out of the relationship circle, not just with her, but with every other girl who could have ever hoped to be with him, which is quite strange, considering that he was the handsome one in the Host Club.

Droplets of clear water fell onto the window as her lips parted slightly out of habit.

He decided then that Haruhi was a rare commodity these days.

The limousine stopped in the VIP parking area. The driver stepped off the car and opened the door gracefully with too much smile. He was going to have to work on that.

Kyouya stepped off, offering a hand to Haruhi as he went out. She took it, and they walked towards the gate together, with the driver lagging behind them with the entire luggage Kyouya and Haruhi brought, which were only two suitcases, thus proving the driver was the sort who needed to work out.

The air conditioner blew her bangs back lastingly as they entered the door, wiping away all her concerns for the trip. She was worried at first, but what could go wrong? It was just a simple trip, that was all. She was sure Kyouya would not have gone wrong on his calculations, since this involved him too, not just her. If the trip had just been her alone, she was sure he would have left her out on a branch to bake in the sun for sure.

After all the standard procedure was done, checking off their luggage, bidding a hearty farewell to the driver, by which Kyouya handed him a check deviously, they got aboard the plane immediately. As for the passport, he had taken care of that too—legally, that is. He knew she would not get on the plane with something off the black market.

Haruhi had been absolutely annoyed with the rich people's needs at Ouran, how they had dressed everything up in lavishing red and gold, antique vases around every corner with no one to appreciate it, but the first class seats was like a sharp prick in her head. Annoying, and she could not dare to sit in them, knowing that somewhere in the back of the plane, a mother and baby needed the space much more than she did. She tried convincing Kyouya that the mother and child needed their seats more than they did, but he flat out refused to let their seats go. An act of hospitality which involved him sitting amongst a sea of "commoners" was just unthinkable to him.

She stared at him in disbelief, right before he offered her a bag of peanuts. It was as if the gesture itself was mocking her.

The plane went off the runway with Haruhi looking out the window, heart lifting into a feeling she could not describe. It was deliberate joy she supposed, having never taken off the ground in her entire life. He watched her with a bored expression. How many times he had been on the plane, he asked himself.

During the trip, she asked Kyouya several things regarding the plane, all which greatly amused him, such as why everybody had complimentary slippers. She could not understand why they offered customers slippers when they had their own shoes. Furthermore, the individual mini television screens had her clicking away for an hour before she fell asleep beside him. The plane rocked a bit, by the surface wind above them, letting her head fall on his shoulders.

He watched her as she breathed gently. He got annoyed, not being able to move now, in case of waking her up. Books and movies always said girls slept with smiles on their faces, enticing those around them, but Haruhi had now smile, just a resting expression that told so much about her with just that alone.

As his eyes wandered from her face down to the pair of skinny hands on top of her lap, the plane gave a mighty sudden jerk. If Kyouya had not thought fast to grab her shoulders, she would have fallen out of her seats.

He wasn't happy. What type of plane these days, with all the technology available and auto-pilot feature could make such an elementary mistake?

A few screams erupted through the deck, some thinking that perhaps terrorists were here to rob them of their jewelry. It was a hijack, but they were not outnumbered.

Kyouya remained calm, as he had always been instructed to in situations. There were probably not a lot of them, and he did not think it was a suicide mission. War was about winning over the other side, not committing suicide.

He turned quickly to wake Haruhi, but stopped his hands as he saw her already staring at him in alarm. She was not scared of centipedes or of Tamaki's overwhelming obsessions over her, but did she fear this? Her eyes said nothing of her inner feelings here, and he hesitated to say anything to her right now, as the eyes of everybody else darted around, in this situation.

After a minute, it was getting weird. No men, or supposedly terrorists, nobody, showed up. He had thought that perhaps hijackers of the enemy wanted to hijack a plane from Japan, but no soldiers had yet showed up yet. It was getting weird. He did not think it was the pilot's doing, and that it was just a driving mistake, because when the jerk went off, it had felt like something exploded.

Something clicked off in his head. He could not understand as to why he had not thought of this sooner. They had planted bombs onto the plane, releasing one at a time from some far-off distance, watching to make sure they sunk to the depths of the sea. A basic tactic in war: kill some hostages of a particular country, then threaten the country that if do not surrender, they'll kill more..

Adrenalinerushed to his head; was it too late?

Kyouya sprung from his seat to run to the pilot's deck to tell them this, but as he did, another bomb went off, this one being closer to them. It seemed as if a part of left wing fell off. The next thing he knew, he saw Haruhi's hand clutching the arm of the seat as they started falling through the skies with a wave of screams running through the white plane.

R&R thanks!