Author's Note: Another Chapter so soon?! I guess I just wanted to spoil you guys :) Also angsty Kyoya is tasty.

The heart monitor beeped like a blaring siren in his mind. Kyoya stole another glance at Haruhi's frail form in the hospital bed, flanked on one side by Tamaki and her father, by Mori, Hunny and the Twins on the other. He had been fighting back the impulse to also rush to her side but forced himself to stay and listen to Dr Ishii.

"Ms. Fujioka is severely dehydrated and we are having trouble bringing her fever down. I've seen this in cases where the patient's illness is left untreated for too long. She also seems to be suffering from slight malnutrition. Normally I wouldn't be concerned but with her fever this high it means her body is simply too weak to fight it off. I recommend keeping her here at least over night." Kyoya nodded.

"Do everything you can, cost is not an issue." Slowly he walked back to the foot of Haruhi's bed. Tamaki was holding her hand and for an instant Kyoya felt the urge to smack his fingers away. Haruhi is mine! His mind shrieked before he skillfully silenced it. He was quite practiced as restraining his emotions, a skill necessary in the Ootori household.

Kyoya had been raised with the knowledge that he would one day serve his two older brothers. This was the job of the third son, to never lead but to always silently strengthen the Ootori family. So Kyoya became skilled at analyzing his fellow students and procuring their useful resources. He made the right friends and spoke with the right girls. He knew that some day he would find himself in an arranged marriage with one of these women for the benefit of his family and locked his heart further away from any notion of love. But then his first year of highschool with Tamaki Suoh and the success of the Host Club changed everything. Kyoya realized that while he may never surpass his brothers inside the company, he could someday surpass them from the outside. The Host Club had already amassed him a small fortune and invested properly he could make his own way come graduation. But what of his father's list of marriage candidates? Any one of those girls would come with power and influence yes, but they would also come with family companies looking to make a lone Ootori their pawn. Kyoya's nature might, through years of hard learned lessons, allow him to be subject to his brothers, but an Ootori serve another? Impossible. It was around this time that one Haruhi Fujioka wandered into the Number Three Music Room and broke a very expensive vase. He had known of the scholarship student, everyone did, but like everyone else he had assumed her to be a boy. That coupled with her being of no social standing had him give her no more than a cursory glance. But then that broken vase, that fate changing vase. After that Haruhi had become indebted to the Club and been revealed as a girl. Like any other factor of importance to his finances Kyoya began to keep a closer eye on Haruhi and soon realized that this brillant girl would be perfect for his future. Haruhi was posed to become a lawyer and with proper backing could be hired at an influential firm yet she herself had no ties to any company. She was the perfect chess piece, all gain and no loss. It was then that he vowed to make her his. But how to do it? With any of the other girls from Ouran, marriage was a simple task of making the right negotiations between the two parties. Haruhi was a commoner and seemed unswayed by money. He would have to woo her, make her believe that their becoming a couple was her idea and not one orchestrated by him. So Kyoya plotted and planned taking notes on her likes and dislikes. He was in no hurry, after all he had two years till graduation to make her love him. But then that blond idiot Tamaki ruined everrything. Kyoya began to notice the Host King's attachment to the commoner and strangely enough her slight attachment to him. Stranger still was that as he observed the pair he began to feel jealousy gnaw at his insides. Somewhere along the lines of watching Haruhi, he realised, he had come to actually love her but so apparently had Tamaki. This filled Kyoya with another emotion he thought long forgotten: guilt. Tamaki was responsible for everything, his friends, his having a future. How could he ever try to take Haruhi away from him? Besides even if he didn't feel some obligation to his friend Haruhi would never choose a Shadow King incapable of out shining his fellow hosts. Thus Kyoya retreated further into his emotionless void determined to never again remove it. But, Kyoya smiled as he stared adoringly down at Haruhi's delicate face, that girl had a way of getting under his skin. He had slipped up a couple times, most notably on the night Tamaki had rescued her from drowning.* While he had been primarily terrified to see Haruhi pulled from the water, it tore at his heart to see her in Tamaki's arms. Later that night when she had wandered into his room Kyoya could feel the dam breaking. He held it off for as long as he could by making sharp comments about her being an inconvenience, but his body screamed to hold her, to hug her tight and keep her safe. Before he had known it she was pinned beneath him on the bed. Just as he was about to tell her the truth and let Tamaki go to hell, Haruhi said something that froze him in his tracks.

"You wouldn't do that, Kyoya-senpai because you won't get any merits from sleeping with me."

So that was she really thought of him. She saw only the cold, calculating man that he portrayed, nothing that was underneath. A mask like smile snapped into place as he moved from the bed. He couldn't let her see the hurt. After moving past an outraged Tamaki, who had barged in with the wrong assumptions, Kyoya had closed the door and staggered down the hall. The rest of the school year had passed and most of the time Kyoya's mask had stayed on. But now this. Haruhi looked so fragile and it was breaking his heart. As the other members one by one left for their homes, Kyoya finally allowed himself to pull up a chair beside her and hold the hand that Tamaki had finally release. He waited for Ranka to tell him to go home like he had all the others but instead Haruhi's father looked across the bed at him and simply said:

"You're in love with my daughter aren't you Kyoya-san." Kyoya could feel the tears slip silently down his face. He had never heard the words said aloud before and for some reason they made him dispair.

"Yes I am."

"Well good!" Ranka exclaimed, his voice seeming too loud in the quiet hospital room. "You're better than that Tamaki idiot."

"Not in Haruhi's mind." replied Kyoya bitterly. Ranka dismissively waved.

"My daughter is not stupid Kyoya-san. Soon she'll see what I already know. That Tamaki has a hole in his heart that he fills with many girls. Girls," Ranka shook his finger "not girl. That boy is in love with being loved. He'll break her heart if you let him. Take a risk and let her see the real you. I'm sure you'll change her mind." Kyoya raised Haruhi's hand, so small in his, and pressed it to his lips.

"But first she has to wake up."