CHAPTER NINE

"Oi, Hikar-" She let out a torrent of nasty curses as the twin just hung up on her - she hadn't even finished her lecture about not forcing people to do what they don't want yet! Rubbing her eyes sleepily, she jumped onto her bed again and buried her face in a pillow. Kiyoko knew she wouldn't be able to sleep again, as she feared the nightmares that would return, but she still felt awfully drowsy.

Lying down again, she decided to rest her eyes for a bit.

Which was a horrible idea. Before she even knew it, she had dozed off, and was only later woken by a pair - no, two pairs - of arms shaking her awake.

"Ki-Ki, get up~" A super-annoying voice called.

She bolted up straight on the bed and, using the momentum she had, threw the pillow she was holding mercilessly onto the nearest twin. Ah, sorry-not-sorry, Kaoru.

Everything from then on happened in a blur. She was dragged out of bed by them, then randomly, somehow, before she knew it, she was in Okinawa, watching the members of the Host Club frolicking around with...

"Er... Why are there a bunch of random girls here? And why is Tamaki being all disgusting with that brunette over ther- oh wait I'm pretty sure that's a regular of the host club, isn't she? But still, I thought Tamaki had a crush on Har-" Kiyoko grumbled on, and when she was about to say the most important part, her voice was muffled by two hands clamping onto her mouth, preventing her from saying anything else.

Pissed, she threw them off and yelled at them without even needing to turn back - no one but the twins would do such an annoying act. They weren't even half-bothered, grinning back at her as they ran off to fulfil their host duties (a nicer name for flirting with girls and they doing their gross twincest thing).

Kiyoko curled up next to Haruhi under the umbrella and watched glumly. Luckily, they didn't need to do anything club related, as there were no guy customers here in Okinawa.

Meanwhile, Kyoya was instructing girls to line up for the '5-Minutes-With-Tamaki-On-A-Rock' Activity, and Hikaru and Kaoru were chasing each other down the beach (...). What was even stranger was the sight of Mori and Honey dancing this really weird and random dance with some girls on the other side of the beach.

She sighed heavily. This was going to be a long day.


Unfortunately, the small while of peace was ruined by Hikaru and Kaoru coming up with an idea for a contest. A very sick-minded contest, in her opinion.

Actually, Kiyoko wasn't meant to know. But she had escaped the crowd of girls surrounding Haruhi (after she had mercilessly flicked away the centipede), and stumbled upon their little conversation. Kyoya had photos of Haruhi in middle school - which he would use as a reward for the winner who found out either Haruhi's or her own weakness.

Soon after, Haruhi was dragged away by the twins first, and Kiyoko got thrown into the back of the van to test if she had claustrophobia, and most of the other members all tried something else too, but none succeeded in making either of the girls even slightly afraid.

"Haruhi-chan!" Three girls called from high above on a rock formation. They looked down at Haruhi, still collecting shellfish, and the other girl who was getting pestered by the twins. "It's so nice up here!"

That was when they all heard distinct, rough male voices right next to the girls. Thugs.

Kiyoko gritted her teeth and started to climb up without a second thought, for a while forgetting about one of her greatest fears... But then again she was only thinking for the safety of the girls, even if they can be annoyingly thoughtless and girly at times.

Finally reaching the top, with Kaoru, Hikaru and Haruhi just behind, she glared at the two thugs. "Get away from them, you disgusting people." She hissed, eyes flashing angrily.

"Ooooh, another girl!" One grinned nastily, letting go of the other girl and slowly walking towards Kiyoko. "This one's pretty feisty."

As he drew nearer, the bluish-black haired girl waited for the right time, then lashed out with a fist right in the nose. The thug wasn't expecting it, so he fell down, clutching his bleeding nose and groaning. When he looked back up, his eyes were filled with scathing anger. He reached out to push her off the rock.

Things started to happen all at once. Haruhi was thrown into the water by the other thug, and Tamaki closely followed. Honey dealt with both personally with a rather dark smile on his childish face, then handed him over to the Ootori Police Force.

Kiyoko's eyes widened as she felt herself becoming almost weightless as the drop off the rock loomed closer.

It felt like that time again. Tears formed in her eyes and she cried out helplessly, already falling, back facing the water. Her body was frozen stiff with fear and her sight was blurred. At the last moment, a large hand reached out and grabbed both her wrists.

Luckily, Kiyoko was light (a little underweight), or else her weight would've dragged both her and her savior down with her. It also helped that her savior had thought of crouching down and laying flat on the rock instead of standing up, so he was able to support her weight. She stayed there for a few seconds, suspended over the deep blue water just holding on to some unknown person, and feet dangling and brushing against the crumbling rock. Her eyes were squeezed shut completely, the tears already dry from the cool breeze whipping at her hair.

After the guy kindly pulled her up, she opened her eyes cautiously. Kaoru sat in front of her, his usually cheery and devilish face serious, and showing a little concern.

"Well, thanks." She whispered, her voice hoarse, but trying to make a joke out of it.

"Are you alright?" He muttered.

Kiyoko steadied her breathing. "Yeah. Fine." She replied without looking up, her voice recovering some of her old tsundere-ness.

"Are you... scared of heights?" Kaoru asked carefully. He wondered why she had looked so frightened.

"Yup." She replied quickly, standing up and looking away from the twin. "Don't tell all of the host club, okay? You may want Haruhi's photos, but just deal with it." She tried to make her voice light and normal, so he wouldn't question further.

He nodded. It seemed to him that she had admitted her phobia too fast. There was something in the whole situation that just didn't click. Kaoru had seen the intensity of the fear in her expression when she was about to fall, and it was definitely not just because of a fear of heights. There was something more to it.

But the girl was not offering any information, and he wasn't going to ask, so they both started walking back to the Ootori family villa in troubled silence.


Kiyoko noticed that Haruhi was deliberately ignoring Tamaki the whole time during dinner. She happened to be sitting directly in front of Tamaki and next to Hikaru on the dinner table, so she had front row seats to the whole situation.

In conclusion to the whole 'long story', Tamaki left and nothing was really solved.

"Maybe I should take up karate or something like that..." Haruhi pondered out loud.

"I used to do karate, actually." Kiyoko mused, munching on crab with a blank expression on her face. "I had a black belt. But that was years and years ago."

Hikaru and Kaoru made a troubled expression from next to her. "Maybe we shouldn't upset you too much then..." They shrugged, disappointment obvious on their faces.

Kaoru noted that she didn't seem much different from before the rock incident, but he still observed her carefully. Being the curious guy he is, he wanted to know why she was so afraid of heights - because everything had a reason to it.

"I really don't know why Tamaki-senpai was so mad about this." Haruhi stated, breaking the short silence.

"To be honest, we think you should reconsider your actions too, and apologise." The twins said in sync.

She frowned a little. "Why? I didn't cause any trouble for you guys, did I?" Kiyoko sighed - she was way too oblivious at times, especially towards Tamaki's little crush on *cough*.

When she'd finally heard from the twins that she had made everyone worry, she apologised straightforwardly, making everyone go to hug her (Mori just stood at the back of their group hug, holding this enormous crab). Kiyoko continued eating unconcernedly.

Meanwhile... The hugging group turned their attention onto the unsuspecting girl.

"Ki-Ki, since Haruhi here apologised, shouldn't you as well?" Hikaru grinned.

She narrowed her eyes. "Why should I? None of you were worried about me anyway."

All of them that were present felt a pang of guilt hit them. It was true, Kaoru thought. Most of the Host Club had been down at the shore, waiting anxiously for Haruhi and Tamaki, that they had forgotten about her, still up on the rocks. She must've noticed that they were feeling a little guilty and awkward, so she hastened to add, "Not that you needed to. Haruhi was the one who needed attention. I mean, I didn't fall into the water, nor was I injured or anything."

Kaoru couldn't help but raise his eyebrow. What about that intense fear she experienced? It was probably worse than any physical injury.

"If you weren't injured, then what's that?" Haruhi pointed to her left arm.

"Huh?" Kiyoko raised her arm, then saw a small red mark and surrounding it, dried blood. "Oh, oops, must've scratched it while I was climbing up. Well, I'm done with dinner anyway, so I'll take my leave now and go clean this thing." Her chair made a screeching noise as she pushed it back and stood up with a stretch. "G'night, people."

Kaoru watched as she left the room. "Goodnight, Ki-Ki!" He and Hikaru called out in sync.


Okay, everyone, sorry for the late update. I'm still alive, don't worry.

I've changed the title and some small bits of info in the previous chapters - note that Kiyoko's height has been changed to 170cm for *cough* purposes LOL.