We arrived at home. I had called ahead, so there were already doctors from our hospital waiting there for Haruhi. She had fallen asleep in the back of my car. We all helped to pick her up without waking her, and carried her inside.
They asked me what room they were to put her in. I thought about it for a moment. "Put her in my room. There are pictures and things in there she would recognize, and I'm sure she'd be most comfortable in there." They all looked at me like I was crazy. I suppose I really did appear as selfish as it seemed. They turned and carried her up, while one maid, one who had been working with the Ootori's since I was a young child, turned around and gave me a smirk. I just rolled my eyes and followed them.
Once Haruhi was settled into my bed, they got to examining her, all the while she was still sound asleep. She was in safe hands. I looked at my watch. It was about eight pm. Ranka would more than likely be leaving for work about now. I decided I'd go back to Haruhi's apartment and get some of her things for her. God knows how long it'd been since she had really been able to stay there. Ranka gave me keys last year, in case of emergency. This counts.
I pulled up to her apartment, and just walked straight in. Ranka was gone, just as I had figured. I first walked into her room. She'd need clothes. However, this was an awkward situation for me. I respected Haruhi a lot, and going through her… private drawers isn't what I'd call "respectful". I manned up and grabbed a few weeks worth of clothing, including her uniform, which she must have just changed out of when Ranka got home as it was still just crumpled on the floor, and put them in one of the suit cases I'd brought. I tried to grab a little of everything. Some of her "girl" clothes as well as some of her "boy" clothes. Just so she was always comfortable. I then went and grabbed her cell phone, charger, school bag, and some other little things.
I was about to leave when it hit me. I was not letting Haruhi come back here for a long while. Not until Ranka was gone, and even then… I dropped the bags and went back into her room. I decided to bring some of her more personal prized possessions. I picked up a picture of her mother. Beautiful woman, she was. She looked exactly like Haruhi, but with longer, wavy hair.
Next to that was a picture of the entire Host Club. I had this exact picture in my room at home. The only difference was that tucked into the frame, was a picture of…just me? It was my school picture. How did she get this? I flipped it over, and in small black writing, said "Kyoya" in Tamaki's hand writing. The school pictures of the rest of the club were sitting on the desk, all with names written on the back in Tamaki's hand. Except Tamaki's had a long, kind of creepy love letter type message on the back, that mentioned that the twins had gotten all of the pictures, and he was giving them all to Haruhi so they wouldn't try to photoshop them. That made sense, using Tamaki logic of course. But why was mine the only one displayed? She was probably in the middle of finding a place for them all. Oh well.
I then really took a moment to admire her room. It was so…cute. Around the room was pieces of memorabilia of things she'd done with the club. Some pressed flowers from our various events, the box from the cake Hunny brought the first time we visited her home, which was now filled shells from the beach, and things of that nature. I didn't know she was as emotionally invested as the rest of us.
I took another quick look around, just to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I saw her wallet on the counter. There was nothing in it, other than her school ID and a picture of the Host Club. Haruhi got money from Ranka every Sunday, from what she'd told me. It was only Wednesday. She couldn't have run out already. Maybe Ranka had taken it? Or maybe, he hadn't given it to her at all. I grabbed the wallet anyways, tucking it into my back pocket
I put all of the bags in my car, and shut the trunk. I leaned against the car and looked at the apartment. If I hadn't brought Haruhi home today…or hadn't called Ranka… I would have never known what had been happening. I would have never guessed that this small and once loving apartment had become a broken home.
I loved Haruhi. I did. It took a very long time to admit this to myself. But after seeing this today...there was just no more maybes. I loved her. More than I'd ever loved anyone or anything. I never wanted to see her like that again. It was then, that I made a vow to myself and to her keep her safe. I would never allow this to happen to her again. I by no means wanted to restrict her in anyway, she was independent, and there was no denying that. I would never tell her she couldn't do something because I was uncomfortable with it.
Our home has more than enough space for her, not to mention we have more than one. My father likes her enough. He had brought up the idea of us being wed. I'd talk with him about it later. But for now, I just wanted her safe, and I'm sure he'd understand that as well as I did. She'd be in a loving enough home, where she would always be taken care of, no matter what. With me.