-Yuuki-Fukushima-: You are just trying to kill me with loooong ideas zz;
kirbysama: Yup! She is going to somewhat adjust to someone else in this chapter!
LoveBird669: I have work. I do my own part-time business, and type from midnight to 8:00AM, a little credit huh?
slmCandle: Yeah, I thought about that. However, Hikaru is too cocky of himself, and I do not want him to know Haruhi's secret, yet.

Okay, I want Haruhi to adjust very slowly, so watch as her relationships build one by one. Or... die trying if Satoshi does not chase them away.

Chapter 03

Blood-Soaked World.

Now—

"Hikaru, be nice! It's supposed to be Haruhi's breakfast, not ours!" The more feminine twin spoke with an upset tone when Hikaru stole her carton of apple juice. "Besides that, we already had two meals today!"

"So? It wasn't like he was drinking it." Said twin replied in annoyance; the bedridden patient was receiving more attention than he was from the other twin who was complaining. "He doesn't seem to care anyway."
"You're partially to blame for his injuries and why he's here to being with!" Kaoru knew well after two days ago, that Haruhi was actually a girl, but had to keep quiet about it. 'That way she can trust me more…'
"Maybe it was my fault, but I apologized for it. Though it doesn't explain why we're here instead of at school." His attention went to the clock, having to mumble in annoyance. "Though school's out by now…"

For the past two days, Haruhi had been kept at the hospital to make sure there was no postponed trauma from her head injury. Kaoru took the opportunity of asking if he could watch over her with hopes of trying to form some sort of bond with her during the time. Takashi was not too happy about the suggestion, but he needed to pay attention to his schoolwork, stay at Mitsukuni's side, and gather her homework. Satoshi agreed to the suggestion of someone other than family watching over her, but he added vital threats as to what would happen if they troubled her in any way. Yasuchika gave no outward opinion towards the entire situation, but they all could see in his eyes that he was not thrilled of strangers—in Haruhi's view—were to watch her. Mitsukuni on the other hand, was not at all pleased about it though he knew that the twins would not harm her purposely, but had to let her try. Hikaru was nervous about the plan of skipping school to watch over some 'pathetic boy,' especially when Mitsukuni looked like he would not trust them to be with the injured one. They all had to figure out what was best for Haruhi, the one who would not speak out her opinions, her needs and desires, her feelings… they all had to wing it.

"Hospital food is gross, I'm going across the street to get real food." Hikaru left the room in a hurry for the need of real food instead of the mysterious tasting food the nurses give. "I'll be back in thirty minutes."

Kaoru knew that he would do this, but did not mind. It gave him the chance to communicate with her.

"Is Mori-senpai still mad at you?" He flinched when seeing her scowl lightly at him. "He's just worried about you not asking for help. I mean… eventually there are going to be times where we can't be there for you—like… the bathroom, perhaps when it's time to go to bed." Though, he was not aware that her very protective siblings tend to sleep in her room, usually on beds brought in for them or on the couches. "You need to let others help. Like two days ago, had I known that was one of the jerks, I would have thrown him out of the room." Kaoru knew that she was trying to ignore him, he was not sure why, but he knew that he could not do anything about it. "Why did you force me to leave anyway? You knew he was going to tease you… or hurt you even judging by Mori-senpai's reaction—" his voice cut off when she cried.

Lips trembling though her teeth were gritted. Her eyes watered and her cheeks wet. She turned away from him to pull the covers over her body. It was a way for her to say 'leave me alone' or 'I do not want to talk about it anymore,' he knew this. A knock was at the door, and it was her older brother and cousin.

Kaoru glanced at her before looking at the ground in thought of the clue she just gave him about her odd behavior the other day. For a while, he had been having a theory about her reasons and never mentioned it to anyone because it was not his place when he barely knew her. He stood from his seat that was then immediately taken by the small senior whom worried over the female in the hospital bed, and looked up.

"Mori-senpai, can I… have a word with you?" Nervously, he glanced towards the unresponsive patient and practically bipolar little blond-haired teenager. "It would be best if we talked in private maybe?"

Takashi wanted to deny the thought of leaving Haruhi's presence after just arriving, but Kaoru's tone made it seem like it was very important, leading him to walk out of the room. Kaoru was right behind him, giving a contented sigh of relief to know he survived leaving the room; now he had to worry about the protective sibling that wanted to be at her side. Hikaru would still not be around for a good twenty minutes and Mitsukuni was definitely not going to be leaving Haruhi's side, he had to say it now.

"I think… that emergency watch won't help her." When he received a glare, he tried to explain hurriedly to him. "The guy you threw in jail two days ago, scared Haruhi, but she threw me out instead." Hopefully he was not crossing the line because he still did not know her that well. "I saw how frightened she was, so it was obvious she knew him, and wanted to run for her life. However, she ignored the remote to signal for emergencies or nurses, not even hit one simple button on a watch." Kaoru saw the patience thinning in the giant's eyes, so he needed to hurry things up. "Is it possible that Haruhi's trying to protect us instead?"

"She is," the giant replied firmly. He had known for a little less than a year now. "She does not want others to worry over her." With no new information, he headed towards the room. "Please excuse me—"

"She thinks she's not—" the twin stopped himself from finishing his sentence as the senior looked at him. He could not break her trust by telling Takashi about her insecurities of how important she is to him. "I…"

Takashi was looking at him, all of his attention was on him, "yes?"
"Uh… n-never mind, I…" Kaoru looked away. "I should go find Hikaru!"
"You do that," he then walked into the room to watch over the delicate female.
Allowing him to sigh in relief again, "that was close, she wouldn't have forgiven me."

Sadly, Kaoru was not aware that Takashi heard him through the door.

The giant shoved the words out of his mind for the moment before rolling a chair on the other side of the bed where she was facing. He was exhausted from always cramming homework and studies during all of the breaks between classes, lunch, and even during class. To make sure no one would worry—and to keep the flow of everyone thinking everything was okay—he and Mitsukuni had to attend their clubs. His hand extended to her with hopes of her accepting it in order to allow him to touch her without her being uncomfortable of his presence. Catching him by surprise, he watched as her form shrank away from his request of touching her, never had she shrank away from him before. What reason could she have to keep away from him suddenly, he always did everything he could to keep her safe, why was she trying—

Hitachiin Kaoru.

No doubt that he would know what this was about.

"What did you think would happen Takashi," Mitsukuni called quietly to not disturb the wounded patient. "You should know what scolding does to her." He then tugged at the sheets. "Haru-chan…" Thankfully, she turned around on the bed to look at him. "You want some cake? With yummy strawberries?"

She nodded weakly.

Knowing that he was defeated by the much smaller cousin, Takashi had no choice but to give the fragile adopted sibling her space. This would at least give him a chance to find Kaoru in order to know what he was about to say earlier; what Haruhi did not think she was. As he slid open the door though, a group of handsome boys were standing outside with smiles that had the nurses blushing from afar. The twins were somehow kidnapped into the visiting party—probably to make the Host King feel safer for coming there.

"Haruhi is not except non-family members at this time." His voice was stern but gentle.
"Nonsense! We are family!" The Host King cheered happily, until he heard a click.
He cringed when he knew it meant that Mitsukuni locked the door. 'Damn it…'
"D-Did Hani-senpai just lock us out?" Kaoru twitched, surprised by the act.

"…cake…" They looked at the giant before walking away to fetch some.

"This isn't fair! How come you two get to be at his side all the time but we can't?!" The Host King sobbed. "I want to learn more about our new friend, all I know is that he is Mori-senpai's brother! Then there's that issue about being afraid of guys. Hmm… I wonder what that's about anyway. Maybe he was abused—"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Kaoru spoke surprisingly firm. He realized he snapped at him and looked away nervously. "I mean… it isn't right to assume or suggest anything, what if it's true?"
His twin rolled his eyes at this in boredom. "He's from a rich family, he could be anything but abused."
'Wait… why would a doctor tease her? She had a fresh bruise on her after that encounter with—there's more to it, isn't there?' He tried to think of all the possibilities, causing himself to become oblivious.
"If it is true, we'll help him!" The Host King cheered gleefully while his shadowy friend shook his head in disdain to his thoughts. "Kyouya, can't you get all records of Morinozuka Haruhi? Please oh please?"
"Even if I wanted to, I can't." Though he was lying through his teeth, it was to protect the girl. "Any sort of information is heavily guarded, only petty things are known about; hobbies, likes, dislikes, and so forth."

"Then its settled! We shall have Morinozuka Haruhi-kun join us in the Host Club!"

After the blond-haired male said this in a completely a remarkable horrid manner of pride, the door was unlocked and slammed open to show an angry Haninozuka Mitsukuni. He stated darkly that Haruhi was rest due to her serious injury, and that he would break their necks if they decided to bug her in any form. His intentions were to protect her from being afraid of the male side of their race, but if they were going to push their friendship onto her, it could hold her back more. The others were assuming that he was fairly cranky because he did not have his afternoon nap, other than Kyouya and Kaoru, they did not know that he was just being protective of his cousin. Speaking of which, Takashi finally appeared with a tray holding two plates, a chocolate and a strawberry cake, both with rabbits drawn on them with white frosting.

This allowed the small senior to revert. "Haru-chan! Takashi brought our cake!" Despite Takashi setting it down in front of her on her personal bed tray, Haruhi mouthed a name to the little one, who did not seem too happy about it. "Kao-chan, Haru-chan wants you!" The one summoned nervously entered the room.

"Yes?" The twin was nervous; wondering if he had done something wrong.
She eyed him lightly until looking over at the Host King, Suoh Tamaki.
"H-He's a really big idiot, but he means well." He hoped he was on cue.
"Tama-chan created the Host Club last year." Mitsukuni added quietly.
Haruhi twitched at this and looked at the person with foreign eye colors.

Tamaki was going to complain about being called a 'big idiot,' but then the patient was beckoning him to enter, which led everyone to follow. Takashi was concerned about the number of males in the one room with her being the only female inside it, yet she seemed to be doing just fine. Haruhi rose her arm up with her hand pointing downwards, slightly rotating it to motion him to turn around so she could see him good. Of course—as stupid as the Suoh Tamaki of Class 2-A and President of the Host Club of Ouran Academy since its conception—he slowly twirled around like the idiot he was. Kaoru watched the girl as Tamaki was stating how he was beginning to get sick from spinning in one spot for too long; she was shuttering.

Her hand came up to cover her mouth before turning to hide her face, making him grin while pointing.

"Haruhi's laughing!" Over the few days, Kaoru thought it was impossible for her to laugh, but she was.

"Hosting…" Takashi started. "Is funny, to Haruhi."

"Hosting is not something to laugh at! We beautiful young men do everything in our power to help poor unfortunate young women! We give them hospitality and—" Tamaki stopped in speech when she sat up slowly, glaring at him. "H-Haruhi-kun?" He tried to play the nice guy card as the patient got up from the bed, dragging her feet towards him in an intimidating manner, but suddenly Takashi grabbed her tightly.

"Be nice." The giant warned, only to feel her flinch before throwing him across the wall for both stopping her, and touching her. She was not happy about this person and his theory of helping 'poor women.'
Haruhi raised her hand to smack the Host King in the face. "Haru-chan, come eat the cake with me before it turns yucky!" Mitsukuni cheered happily to distract her, and her hand slowly lowered as she turned.
After she sat back up on her bed and ate the cake with her cousin now sitting up with her at her side, the feminine twin decided to ask. "Hey Haruhi, how about you join the Host Club with us? It could be fun."

Haruhi looked at him unhappily for the suggestion; mainly because of the other males.

"You wouldn't have to host, you could do chores like… making tea or something. That way you wouldn't have to entertain guests, and you could be around Mori-senpai and Hani-senpai." Kaoru started to grin lightly as he saw her attempting to consider it. "It would be just us as guys, and none of us will harm you."

It took a moment to come to her decision, and shook her head—declining the offer.

Fujioka—Morinozuka Haruhi, would need a lot more time before joining a group made of males.

A week had passed with difficulty due to Tamaki's constantly trying to be persistent upon her joining the Host Club, and each time she ran away. Thankfully, he was an idiot who did not realize that she would spend her time in one of the libraries in a corner away from others. Though it was much to her dismay, she decided to take one book too many from the library to study; she wished she had a servant with her. Due to not being able to handle the six large textbooks, she crashed into a student in the hallway outside of the library, causing her to fall over and drop her books. Pain surged up to her bandaged head that was wrapped for safety measures, and she heard others gasping and whispering about her being in trouble.

Haruhi looked upwards with an apologetic expression to the person she bumped into, only to see that it was a redhead with a gangster style to his clothing manner. She lifted a hand to her head to soothe her headache that came suddenly, but froze when he knelt down to pick up all of her textbooks before setting them up on the windowsill. Her attention refocused on him once more as he then offered her his hand in a helpful manner despite the supposedly scary expression on his face.

But he was asking for permission.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Are you okay?" He asked her with his rough voice, and she nodded before nervously taking his hand. "I'm Kasanoda Ritsu from 1-D, what's your name?" A question she knew all too well, and she took out a piece of paper that revealed her name and class. "Ah, you're the guy that's mute?" He instantly knew that he accidentally made her uncomfortable with this little question and tried to make things better with her. "S-Sorry, that didn't come out right. Can I carry your books as an apology for bumping into you, and for my rudeness towards you. I look up to your brother."

She stared at him for the moment in surprise for hearing him say this; a complete stranger was being sincere about something that was truthfully her mistake, and admiring her older brother. Not able to resist smiling, she nodded gratefully to him before pointing to the note in her hand at '1-A' to signify that she had to go to her classroom to get her bag. Ritsu seemed to understand, so he grabbed the books off the edge of the windowsill before following her towards the classrooms at her side. They eventually arrived in the empty classroom where she began to put her things in her bag to get ready to leave the Academy.

He broke the silence. "Aren't you scared of me, like everyone else is?" Her attention went to him with a raised brow. "Well… everyone runs at the sight of me, and try to avoid me. I've heard rumors that you were afraid of other guys, but you didn't exactly flee at the sight of me." It was true, being near Kaoru had helped her, but this person was different too. With her big brown hues staring at him, he turned away with tinted red cheeks. "N-No offense, but you look like a girl—I m-mean, in a cute way! Er—wait, what I mean is—I er…" Ritsu not only stumbled over his words, but over his feet too, and began falling over quickly.

Curse her for having fast reflexes as she tried to help him before falling over, but her bag weighed her down and fell beneath him. The contents of her bag laid across the floor as the several textbooks skidded on the tiles, leading them in an interesting predicament. Ritsu bared his weight on his hands to keep himself from falling against her body while she was sprawled out beneath him while cringing in pain. A small object caught his attention; it was her wallet that fell from her pocket when falling—seeing her card caused to stiffen at the sight of her gender to realize that this male student was actually a female. His entire face became red as he slowly brought his attention down to her before quickly throwing himself away from her body and across the room without a second thought.

"S-S-Sorry! I-I-I should have been more careful!" The redhead realized that he had abandoned her on the tiles, causing him to nervously come over, offering his hand again. "H-H-Here, let me help you up, again." Haruhi looked at him confusedly before turning to where he was looking at, only to realize that he now knew that he was fully aware of her gender… but he was… panicked? "I-I guess you're pretending to be a guy to stay away from them…" It sounded logical, somewhat. "I.. I won't tell anyone. You're secret's safe with me, okay, Morinozuka?" Haruhi confusedly gave him her hand, and he helped her up. "I promise."

This person just learned the truth, just like that, and accepted it so suddenly?

Her lips moved to thank him, but nothing came out, and she frowned.

"Hey… um… how come you can't speak?" Ritsu bent down to pick up all of her belongings that had fallen everywhere on the floor. "There are rumors saying that you haven't been treated right when Morinozuka-aniki isn't around, but—" he witnessed her shutter and flinch at this, so he knew that he was on target. "U-Uh, sorry… I didn't think… er…" he did not know what to do. Once had her bag in a hand and picked up her books, he looked at her. "Are you going to be picked up, or are you going to the Host Club now?" She lifted a finger to motion his first suggestion while recovering from his words moments ago, and they began to walk. "Hey, I didn't mean to upset you, but… at least I get the idea and know to keep my distance."

Haruhi stopped to look at him; this male did not want to harm her in any way. It made her… happy.

As they walked together side by side down the hallways, she could her everyone whispering about how close she was towards another person, and that the person was the scariest student in school. It made her wonder why everyone was so scared of this young man—had he done something to be that scary in their point of view? This caused her to stop accidentally to think about it; if Kasanoda Ritsu scared everyone away, that means other male students would stay away from him. The thought of using a person like that made her unhappy about her thinking, and wished she could take back her thoughts.

"Hey, there's no reason for you to worry. No one is going to bother you with me next to you." It was as if he was reading her mind. "I don't know why you're scared of them, but their scared of me, so you can feel more at ease—and I won't do anything to you." He proved it by keeping his attention away from her.

If there was one thing Haruhi could still faintly do, it was sensing if others genuinely wanted to help her, and Kaoru helped her world expand just a small fraction. The Host Club scared her though; all of those males at one time? Poor girl barely adjusted to Kaoru on the first day of school, then she was suddenly forced to deal with both Kaoru and his brother Hikaru? She did adjust after a while, though the main thing that she remembered was that, not everyone was somebody that was out to get her. Once they left the double doors that led towards the pick-up lot for students, she pointed to the limousine waited for her as she then noticed the large group behind her.

Ritsu felt her become nervous for the moment, leading him to turn towards everyone with an icy glare.

All of the students fled the scene in an instant, and she smiled happily to him.

"You know… um… I could… hang with you, at school. I-If you want that is…" he blushed nervously. "I-I mean, others would leave you alone if you did… but… you probably need to get used to me since I'm kind of scary looking." The chauffeur opened the door and Ritsu set the things inside for her. "E-Er, never mind what I said—I'm just being stupid and—" as he was trying to escape, she grabbed his sleeve lightly before nodding her head softly. "You want to… hang out with me?" Again, Haruhi nodded. "Uh… o-okay, um…" Ritsu pulled out his phone and placed it on new contacts before giving it to her. "You can text me when you want to… chat… n-not verbally… but… uh…" she took the phone and gave him her information, and then she brought her phone out for him to do it too. "Morinozuka-aniki won't kick my ass though, right?"

Haruhi lightly smiled when retrieving her phone back and showing him in a text.

Nii-sama pays more attention to Mitsukuni, but—

"Get away from my brother!" A loud voice called, scaring the daylights out of Ritsu who turned to see a middle school student—Morinozuka Satoshi, who was running over to protect her. "What do you want?!"

"I-I-I-I-I—I, well s-s-s-she—I mean—" Ritsu was about to have a heart attack.

Haruhi silently sighed before yanking her little brother's ear for being rude, then placed a finger to her lips in hopes of him settling down. She did not realize however, that he glimpsed at what was typed on her cell phone, though he said nothing about this to her for good reasons. Her hand soon released his ear before rustling his head to let him know that everything was okay, then offered her hand to Ritsu.

He knew she wanted to shake hands, but she was slightly trembling. "Morinozuka, don't take it the wrong way but," Ritsu slightly bowed to her instead of shaking hands. "You need more time to get used to me."

This had made her both smile and nod her head in turn before heading into the limousine.

When the vehicle was gone, Satoshi glanced toward the high school male student.

"Haruhi seems to trust you for some reason… but if you break that trust, we'll come after you." He had no time to deal with him after reading the text on her phone. There were many things going through his head, and so he had to sort things out in his mind before going home where he would see both of his siblings. "Since its obvious you know about her gender, if you do anything inappropriate, I'll kill you." He then left.

Ritsu stared in disbelief of being told off by someone younger than him.

Things were going to be interesting.

Thought it would be funny; having Satoshi threatening Ritsu and everything. I always love having Ritsu in my stories, even if it will be MoriHaru. However, I am getting SO TIRED of having a mute Haruhi! Oh, by the way, Haruhi's in the last part is because Kaoru tried working with her during the days that she was in the hospital while Hikaru went to grab food or something.